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Our Plymouth Forefathers 

The Real Founders of Our Republic 



By 

Charles Stedman Hanks 

/I 

Author of 
" Hints to Golfers," "Camp Kits and Camp Life," etc. 




Boston 

Dana Estes &: Company 

Publishers 



H-»-^ 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two OoDies Received 

APR 3 m^ 



^' 



Copyright, January 23, 1908 
By Charles Stedman Hanks 



Entered at Stationer's Hall, London, England 
All rights reserved 



(/•^j^i^ 



r 



To the memory of my father who devoted to Ms fellow- 
men a long life of earnest labor, and who left as an 
inheritance to his children a rare example of an upright, 
progressive man guided by a New England conscie7ice. 



It is a pleasure to acknowledge my indebtedness to 
the Hon. William T. Davis, of Plymouth, Massachu- 
setts, and to W. P. Greenlaw, Esq., the librarian of 
the New England Historical Society, for correcting 
the manuscript of this book,. — two men who have 
made as thorough a study of the daily lives of our 
Plymouth forefathers as any historians now living. I 
wish also to acknowledge my indebtedness to Ed- 
mund H. Garrett, who has given much time to study- 
ing from the view -point of an artist the section of 
country where our forefathers lived, and who has 
visited with me many of the localities which he has 
illustrated. I wish also to acknowledge my indebted- 
ness to Charles Scribner's Sons in allowing me to use 
the illustrations on pages 119, 151, 158, 171, and 210; 
to Houghton, Mifflin & Co. for the illustrations on 
pages 244 and 245; to Little, Brown & Co. for the 
illustrations on pages 137 and 200; and to the John 
A. Lowell Company for the illustration on page 54. 

Charles Stedman Hanks. 



CONTENTS 



I. The English Separatists 1 

II. Congregationalism 19 

III. The Pilgrims in Holland 35 

IV. 1620 — The Settlement at Plymouth 54 

V. 1621— The Beginning of New England .... 68 

VI. 1622— The Scarcity of Corn 85 

VII. 1623 — The First Indl^jst Conspiracy 94 

VIII. 1624— The First Allotment of Land 119 

IX. 1625 — The Colony ab.\ndoned by the London 

Stockholders 132 

X. 1626 — Fur-trading along the Maine Coast . . 138 

XL 1627— Tr.\ding Post on Buzzards Bay .... 142 

Xn. 1628 — The Second Allotment of Land .... 152 

XIII. 1629 — Trading Post on the Penobscot River . 159 

XIV. 1630 — ^The Puritan Settlement at Boston . . 165 
XV. 1631 — ^Astonishing Prosperity of the Colony . 172 

XVI. 1632 — The Spreading out of the Colony . . . 177 

XVII. 1633 — Trading Post on the Connecticut River, 181 

XVIII. 1634 — The Beginning of English Interference, 186 

XIX. 1635 — The Penobscot Trading Post Lost . . . 191 

XX. 1636 — The Enactment of a Code of Laws . . 196 

XXI. 1637— The Pequot War 201 

XXII. 1638 TO 1643— The Colony at its Lowest 

Ebb 211 

XXIII. 1643— The New England Confederacy .... 218 

XXIV. 1644 TO 1676 — Death of Winslow, Standish, 

and Bradford. King Philip's War . . . 224 

XXV. 1676 to 1776 — Plymouth's Refusal to be the 

Slave of any Nation 242 

XXVI. Colonial Life from 1620 to 1776 260 

XXVII. A People of Destiny 285 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Our First Th.\nicsgiving Day Frontispiece 

Yeo^l\n of the Guards 1 

Henry VIII 5 

Edward VI 10 

Queen ]NL\.ry 11 

Queen Eliz-\beth 1-2 

The Brewster House 19 

Lady Rose Hicioian 20 

The Brewster House (East side) '■21 

Ground Plan of the Scrooby Buildings '23 

The Scrooby Stable "25 

Jaaies I 28 

Mollie Brown's Cove 31 

Robinson's House 35 

Alley le.\ding from Barndesteeg Strasse 38 

Alley lk\ding fro:m Achterburgwal Strasse 39 

The Embark.\tion from Delft Haven 52 

The May Flower o4 

The First Exploring Expedition 59 

The Second Exploring Expedition 60 

The Third Exploring Expedition 65 

The Departure of the May Flower 68 

Myles St-vndish 85 

The Pioneer Settle^ient 87 

At Standish's Fireside 93 

A Cape Cod Indian 94' 

The Plymouth Settlknient, 16'23 lU 

A Shallop 119 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Trlvl of Lyford 126 

ClL\RLES 1 13^ 

Oldham put under Arrest 137 

The Robinson T.\blet at Letden 138 

Thoughts of Old Engl-\nd 141 

Off C\pe Cod 14-2 

W-\MPUM Belt 151 

John Endicott lo^ 

English Morions 158 

Archbishop L.\ud 159 

John Wlvthrop 165 

The First Church in Boston 171 

The Myles St-\ndish HoxrsE 17^ 

Copp's Hill, Boston 177 

Edw.uid Winslow 181 

Exploring the Con-necticut Rr-er V.uj.ey 185 

Thom.\s Prence's Signature 186 

Fleet Prison 190 

The ARErv'-\L of Bay Settlers in Con-necticut 191 

The Fort at Pem.\quid 195 

The ^Luor Br-\dford House 196 

Relics of By-gone Days 200 

Pequot Indl\n 201 

The Terrttory of the Different Indl\n Tribes . . . 202 

Route of ^L^on's Expedition 206 

WiLLL\ais' CoMP-\ss -\ND Dlu. 210 

Ch.\rles Chauncy 211 

The L.\ying on of IL\nds 217 

^YILLL\M Brewster's Signature 218 

Oliver CROM^yELL 224 

CH.utLES H 229 

Facsimile Copy of Letter notifying Boston of Attack 

ON Sw.^NZEY 233 

Battle with the Xarr.\G-\nsetts 236 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Th.^nksgh-ing Services when the Colonists le.\rned of 

THE Death of King Philip 241 

J-\.MES II 242 

Sir Edmund Andros 244 

\VlLLL\.M III 244 

Sir ^YILLL\M Phips 245 

Queen Anne 245 

George 1 246 

George II 246 

George UI 247 

Andros a Prisoner in Boston 259 

Site of the Old Fort 260 

The First W.\shing Day 284 

Nation-\l Monument to oxjr Plymouth Forefathers . . 285 



OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

THE REAL FOUNDERS OF OUR REPUBLIC 



CHAPTER I 



THE ENGLISH SEPARATISTS 



For conscience' sake the Pilgrim Fathers gave up 
their homes in England, their kindred and the friends 
of a lifetime, and settled in Holland, 
that they might worship their God 
according to their interpretation of 
the Gospels. For conscience' sake, 
twelve years later, they deliberately 
separated themselves from the past 
of their race, and emigrated to Amer- 
ica in order to devote all their ener- 
gies to carrying out their ideals, 
hoping that in a new country their 
own form of worship would be firmly 
established and the world be bene- 
fitted. It was this impetus of religion 
which was behind everything they did, their faith, 
piety, and confident trust in a superintending Provi- 
dence making them the type of men they were. 

At the time they sought an asylum in Holland, 
England had just passed through a great convulsion, 




YEOMAN OF THE 
GUARDS 



2 OUR rLYMOUTH FORKFATHERS 

brought about by tlio Protostaut Roforuiation. — the 
greatest and most benetieial movement that Europe 
had ever known, — and this, with the invention of 
movable tvpe for printing, had brought into prom- 
inence that heretofore non-essential factor, the peo- 
ple, who for centuries had allowed others to do 
their thinking. Some of these religious reformers, 
unwilling to accept with the mother country the 
Euixlish Church as a substitute for the gorgeous- 
ness of Popery, had taken a further step in the pro- 
gressive movement, and demanded the rio;ht to wor- 
ship as they believed the Bible taught. They were 
few in number, but their intensity of purpose was 
so strong that they were persecuted for non-conform- 
ity. Their fundamental principle-^ of Christianity 
ditl'ered but little from the Christianity oi the Estab- 
lished Church, although in ecclesiastical government, 
and in the personal relation that they believed 
existed between (lod and man, they were far apart, 
those of the Established Church believing that their 
Church was indissohibly connected with the State 
which was its head, and the reformers believing that 
the Church was independent of the State on the ground 
that a personal communion existed between God and 
anv who came together in Christ's name, whenever 
and wherever they met. This doctrine of Christian- 
itv, which was far-reaching in its logical results, finally 
became the basis of Congregationalism. The founda- 
tion of their creed was their interpretation of that 



THE ENGLISH SEPARATISTS 3 

passage of tlic Scriptures which said, * Where two or 
three are gathered together in My name, there am I 
in the midst of them." To them this meant that 
tliere should be no bishops, no authority of one body 
of men over others, and no dogmas to hamper freedom 
in rehgious thought or rehgious worship. Together 
with this behef in a simple outward form of worship 
tliere was also the spiritual side, which was an abso- 
lute faith that through the Holy Spirit all who fol- 
lowed Christ's doctrines, as expounded, in the Scrip- 
tures, would be guided and protected. Because they 
had insisted upon this form of worship, they had 
fled to Holland, where they established a democratic 
church, and, because of the spiritual belief which went 
with it, they later emigrated to America, where they 
became the real founders of a great Republic. 

Two hundred years before this time the seed of 
Protestantism had been sown in England when John 
Wyclif, an Englishman as conspicuous for his courage 
as his learning, claimed that every man had not only 
a right to an individual judgment in theological matters, 
but also a right to question the most cherished dogmas 
of the Church of Rome. For boldly proclaiming that 
the Church, in granting temporal power, was going 
beyond her rights and jeopardizing her influence, for 
denying transubstantiation, for disapproving auricular 
confession, for opposing the payment of Peter's pence, 
for teaching that kings should not be subject to prel- 
ates, and for translating the Bible and circulating it 



4 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

among the people, Wvclif had been excommunicated 
by the pope, and his followers became known as Lol- 
hirds, or "babblers." 

For a centurv after this there was no outward sign 
in England of any organized movement in ecclesias- 
tical reform, as the people, who had been disciplined 
for ages to mistrust their own faculties in religious 
thinking, were slow to give up what seemed to them 
a safe anchorage for the unauthorized guidance of un- 
conventional reformers. On the Continent, however, 
the seed sown by AVyclif had fallen on fertile ground, 
and in 141o and 141(> John IIuss. of Bohemia, and his 
coadjutor, Jerome, of Prague, viiii^'^l*^ reformers by 
reading AVyclif's books'* paid the penalty of advo- 
cating his doctrines by being burned at the stake. 
Their testimony had resounded throughout Europe, 
and before the centurv ended Savonarola, the Floren- 
tine monk, had become another martyr at the stake 
with the result that his beliefs soon afterwards 
became the basis of the doctrines of ^Martin Luther, 
of AYittenberg, of John Knox, of Edinburgh, and of 
John Calvin, of Geneva. 

In Germany Martin Luther had demanded a refor- 
mation in txx^lesiastical government, and had finally 
succeeded in overthrowing Po^xny. In consecjuence 
his followers had been given the name of Protestants. 
The same wave of purification soon reached England, 
and Protestantism, Incoming a political factor, was 
made the reliirion of the countrv. This had not been 



THE ENGLISH SEPARATISTS 




HENRY Mill. 



done from any religious sentiment, or because of any 
protest against the scandals in the Church of Rome, 
but because Henry VIII., who 

was then king, saw that by 
denying the authority of the 
pope, and making the State 
the head of the Church, 
would be able, not only to 
divorce himself from Cather- 
ine of Aragon and marry 
Anne Bolevn, but also to get 
possession of the vast wealth of 
the monasteries then flourish- 
ing in all parts of his kingdom. 

Although a large majority of the people were still 
Roman Catliolics, the king was able to carry his diplo- 
matic Protestantism through Parliament; for, the 
countiy having hardly recovered from the War of the 
Roses, there was still a fear that, as Catherine of 
ArngcMi was the king's deceased brother's widow, his 
issue by her might be considered illegitimate, and 
cause the countrv to be acfain pluno-ed into a civil war. 
Only one reign separated the people from the desolat- 
ing War of the Roses, and the Royal Council, being 
convinced that it was its first duty to guard against 
another civil war, believed the danger of separating 
from Rome preferable to the disasters that might fol- 
low if the king should die witli heirs whose legitimacy 
the nation could (]uestioii. It was this feeling that 



6 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

made a large body of the Roman Catholics in Parlia- 
ment willing to vote to throw off the yoke of Rome. 
The others who favored this political makeshift were 
a body of men who had long been opposed to the grow- 
ing arrogance of the Roman prelates, and were ready, 
now that the words of the Bible were becoming known 
to them, to vote for the change on religions grounds. 
For ditferent reasons, therefore, Roman Catholics 
and Protestants voted together, the Act of Supremacy 
becoming a law. and England practically a Protestant 
country, in lo34-. 

flaking the king the head of the Church had brought 
with it no changes in the doctrines of Christianity, and 
only a few in the elaborate ceremonials and the gor- 
geous vestments of the Roman service. It was merely 
Papacy with the pope left out. Neither had it given 
to the people a better clergy, for the king, in carrying 
out his pious design of abolishing the monasteries and 
sequestering the revenues, often allowed a Roman 
Catholic prelate to accept a bishopric, and often turned 
these wealthy possessions over to his favorites, leaving 
it to thoin to look after the religious instincts of his 
subjects. The result was that in many parishes no 
religious services were held, while in others were 
clerixv who, not havins: been educated for relii^ious 
work, were incompetent to have charge of parishes. In 
making the change to Episcopacy, the king had been 
obliged to make concessions to both Romanists and 
Protestants : to conciliate the Roman Catholics, he 



THE EiSGLISH SEPARATISTS 7 

prohibited the teaching of all Lutheran doctrines: 
to conciliate the Protestants, he ordered the Bible to be 
translated and a copy placed in every parish house in 
England. 

Under this new order of things, men now found them- 
selves in a strange dilemma, it being as dangerous 
to believe too much as too little, since Protestants were 
draofred to execution for refusino^ to believe in the tran- 
substantiation of the bread and wine into the body 
and blood of Christ, Catholics for denying the king's 
supremacy. The change, however, brought with it one 
great privilege — the free use of the Bible by all; but, 
in making the leaders in the Church dependent for 
support and preferment upon the king and subse- 
quently upon Parliament, it encouraged servility, and 
undermined that independence of spirit which was 
essential if the Church was to have any real force and 
influence in the land. 

Opposed to this new form of ecclesiastical govern- 
ment were scores of honest Roman Catholics who 
still refused to change the religion under which they 
had been brought up, and scores of honest Protestants 
who were trving to bring to the front a real reformation 
in religious doctrines. R was these latter people 
who were known as " Puritans," a name given to them 
by the Roman Catholics, who slurringly said that these 
people thought themselves like the Novatian sect of 
old, who had called themselves Puritans because 
they prided themselves upon being more godly and 



8 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

more pure than other people. Most of these Puritans 
were yeomen, who, tinding they eould not bring 
the Church to their views, had no scruples in ac- 
cepting the union of Chui-ch and State and a partial 
reformation and bishops. There was also in England 
a few who neither shared the hopes nor approved 
the methods of the conforming Puritans. This party 
despaired of bringing the Cluircli to thoroughgoing 
Protestantism, and repudiated the interference of the 
State in Church atfairs. It was these people who later 
became known as Separatists. All were originally 
Puritans whom nothing but the strongest convictions of 
duty would have impelled to break with the Na- 
tional Church. In their protest against sacerdotalism, 
in their non-conformity and in their tlieology, they 
were both alike. The fundamental ditference be- 
tween them was that the Puritans advocated a na- 
tional reformation while the Separatists believed that 
only through individuals could the nation be reformed. 
This ditference was because the Puritans looked 
upon the Church as a national institution, while 
the Separatists maintained that any sexnety of men 
who believed and obeyed the words of Christ be- 
came a Church of Christ, and that for the national 
well-being there nuist be within the State self-regulat- 
ing Christian comnuuiities without civil power. Hence 
there were, in England, at this time four sects: 
the Catholics or adherents to the Church of Rome 
who were still powerful in many localities, and the 



THE ENGLISH 8EPARATLST8 9 

throe (Hffercnt sects of Protestants; namely, the Ano^li- 
cans, or eont'orniists, who heheved in the Estahhshed 
Church, tlic Puritans or non-conformists who diffe?-ed 
from the Anojhcans in not beheving in tlic spiritual 
rites and observances of the Church, and the Inde- 
pendents or Separatists who refused to sanction the 
foundin<>; of a national church on the ground that it 
was contrary to the word of God. 

During these days of religious upheavals, when a few 
men in England were contending for what the Puritans 
afterwards loved to call " The Crown Rights of Jesus," 
there were really no great leaders, like Luther and 
Knox and Calvin, but there was one dauntless preacher, 
Hugh Latimer, under whose stern rebuke the head- 
strong Henry VHL quailed. Under the impetus of 
Latimer's teachings there came a silent working towards 
a simpler faith, based upon the teachings of the New 
Testament without any additions by bishop and clergy, 
and with it the hope that there would be a simpler 
policy in church government, which should do away 
with the institution of ecclesiastical courts, canons, 
and ceremonials. To these men the Bible had now 
become the charter of their religious beliefs, and in 
their interpretation of it neither church nor priest 
held exclusive rights or privileges. Christianity with- 
out coercion and persecution, and with individual 
freedom of mind and conscience, now became the 
watchword of thousands of Protestants upon whom 
the light of the Reformation was dawning, the question. 



10 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

at issue being "How does Christ make known His 
will, — in historic institutions or in the consciences 
of individual believers ? *' If the answer be, ** In both,'* 
then came the question, ''When the two are antag- 
onistic, must man give way to the institution or the 
institution to man?" In answering it, many ignored 

the superstitions of the times, 
and rejecting the binding 
authority of the Church, as 
Luther and Knox and Calvin 
had already done, determined 
to walk in the ways of Christ 
as they had interpreted the 
Bible. The result was that 
there were in many ditferent 
places secret oatherino:s, in 
order, as the Pilgrim Fathers 
LinA vuD ^ I. afterwards said, "to see further 

into things by the light of the word of God." Soon 
there was an organized separation from the Estab- 
lished Church, and meetings were held in ditferent 
homes to worship according to the tenets and doctrines 
that these people had laid down for themselves. 

Upon the death of King Henry VIII. in 1547, his son 
by his wife Jane Seymour came to the throne as Edward 
VI., "the boy king." During his reign the Bible, as 
translated by Tvndale and Coverdale, became familiar 
to the English people, and brought about a new awaken- 
ing of spiritual life. AYhen this wealth of Hebrew 




THE ENGLISH SEPARATISTS 



11 



literature became implanted in the English mind, the 
Latin Mass was abolished for the English Prayer 
Book. Upon the death of Edward in 1553, after a 
reign of six years, Mary, the daughter of Henry VHL by 
Catherine of Aragon, became queen. She was a firm 
Roman Catholic, and during her reign of five years 
all her persuasive influence 
was used to brins: the coun- 
try back to Roman Cathol- 
icism. Up to this time the 
spiritual principles of Protes- 
tantism had been obscure, but, 
with the issue now fairly made, 
men took sides for the de- 
cision of the real question. 
This resulted in a reaction in 
favor of the old form of wor- 
ship, for a majority of the 
people had never at heart given up their old cere- 
monial religion, and the reformation of Henry VHL 
had brought so many scandals into the Church 
that nearly every one was anxious to get back to 
the rule of Rome in church affairs. Not only 
was the Bible now taken from the English churches 
and English homes, but a cruel persecuting policy 
was carried on against all Protestants, whether Con- 
formists or Non-conformists; many were driven into 
exile to the Continent, hundreds were thrown into 
prison to languish for months, perhaps for years, 




QUEEN MAHY 



12 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

during m Inch time they were unheard and unconvicted, 
while other hundreds died on the gallows. But when 
a number of Essex men were burned at one time at 
the stake in Smithfield, and the people found that they 
had a queen who believed Roman Catholicism taught 
her to burn her subjects, the English blood was stirred, 

and the martyr fires which 
she kindled made England 
again a Protestant country. 

The people as a nation now 
accepted the English Church 
as a reality. In France the 
massacre on St. Bartholomew's 
Day — when a Roman Cath- 
olic mob was let loose upon 
the Protestant Huguenots — 
had just occurred, and it had 
QUEKN ELIZABETH produccd iu Euglaud such a 

profound sensation that the hatred of Popery increased 
a thousand-fold. The Puritans within the Church 
were now advocating the abolition of every Romanist 
practice and a clean sweep of all sacerdotal vestments. 
During this trend of thought, Elizabeth, the daughter 
of Anne Boleyn, became queen in L55S, and, seeing the 
uselessness of opposition, adopted the policy of reconcil- 
ing, so far as possible, her Catholic subjects to the Estab- 
lished Church, and of making that Church politically 
strong rather than religiously pure. Under the bold 
and rigorous policy of John AYhitgift, her archbishop. 




THE ENGLISH SEPARATISTS 13 

all again had now the privilege of hearing and reading 
the Bible, but all who did not accept the doctrines 
of the Church of England, as set forth in his three 
famous articles published in 1584, were vigorously 
persecuted. Because those of the clergy who did not 
subscribe to these tenets were suspended, loyalty to 
the Church meant to many, intellectual dishonesty. 
Honesty of conscience therefore often meant a sacri- 
fice of homes and the means of a livelihood, and 
suspensions, in nearly every case, meant men of intel- 
lectual ability. 

The men who carried on this persecuting policy 
were themselves Protestants, many of whom had suffered 
persecution under Queen Mary, and some of the laws 
which they were forced to carry out — although origi- 
nally aimed against the Roman Catholics — were so 
sweeping that they included all forms of worship except 
those in the Prayer Book. The most radical reformers, 
inflamed by these persecutions, now became Separa- 
tists, and, flatly denying the royal supremacy, asserted 
the right to set up churches of their own with pas- 
tors and elders, independent of queen and bishop. 
Others, who had previously been willing to accept from 
the clergy their interpretations of the Scriptures, now 
began to read and interpret it for themselves, and in 
many an honest mind this meant that a doubt arose 
whether the ceremonies and practices of the Estab- 
lished Church conformed to the teachings of the New 
Testament. 



14 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

As early as L)7t) the Separatists had beeome a rec- 
ognized sect. This had been hirgely brought about by 
Robert Browne, one of the most advanced defenders 
of rehgious Hberty in his time. He came of a wealthy 
and powerful family, and, when graduated from Cam- 
brids^e in lo70, beiran preachino: "to satisfy his dutv aud 
his conscience," as he said. From his reading of the 
New Testament he liad become convinced not only that 
the Christianity of Ohrist and Hi^ Apostles was a 
simpler religion than that of the Established Church, 
but that it was the right of any Clu'istian people to 
propagate the Christian faith in their own way. Es- 
tablishinor himself in Norwich, he bei^an an enerixetic 
campaign for the New Testament principles, which 
he believed he had rediscovered, and, as this resulted 
in persecutions, his little church in Norwich emigrated 
to Holland. From there Browne and some of his fol- 
lowers went to Scotland, which they found almost as 
hostile to them as Eugland. Afterwards Browne re- 
turned to England, where he was for a time imprisoned. 
Later he became reconciled to the Established Clunx'h. 
and was made the i-ector of a small parish church, 
where he remained until his death. 

To the men who followed his doctrines the name of 
" Brownists '' was given, and, because of the problems 
which he discussed in his pamphlets on reformation, 
he became the founder of Congregationalism. The 
principles for which he argued he had expounded 
forcibly, and had appealed to the people not to wait for 



THE ENGLISH SEPARATISTS 15 

civil power or ecclesiastical rulers to authorize a reforma- 
tion, hut to begin it themselves wherever they were. 
*'The Kingdom of God," he wrote, "was not to be 
begun by whole parishes, but rather })y the worthiest, 
and that to compel religion, to j)lant churches by power, 
to force a submission to ecclesiastical government by 
laws and penalties did not belong to the Commonwealth, 
nor yet to the church," his sharpest arrows being turned 
against those clergy who would not take any respon- 
sible step without the consent of the civil government. 

To the majority of the Puritans many of his doctrines 
seemed too nidlcal, and as their aim was not to leave the 
Church, but to remain in it and control it, they looked 
with dread and disapproval upon this extremist who 
seemed likely to endanger their success by forcing them 
into opposition to the Crown. Had the Church of 
England listened to his oracles, she would have been 
spared many bitter humiliations and many dark pas- 
sages in her history, yet for this young prophet she had 
no answer but prison walls. 

The desire for freedom of worship was now spreading 
throughout the kingdom with startling rapidity, espe- 
cially through the eastern counties. This was partly 
attributable to the influence of the Walloons, or the 
Protestant cloth -weavers, who had been induced to 
come over from the Netherlands a few years before 
this time on account of their skill in weaving, and had 
settled in Canterbury, Colchester, Norwich, and vicinity. 
Everywhere now men and women were separating 



U) OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

themsolvos from the chiirt'li of their fathers for the 
sake of this more simpk^ faith. Because so many were 
unwilhng to assent to creeds and artick\s which they 
only partially believed, because they would not promise 
to observe rubrics which they habitually ignored and 
because they would not vow allegiance to an *"" ordinary*' 
which they had no intention of fulfilling, the parish 
chuivhes became deserted, and so many '"conventicles," 
or secret gatherings, Avere held that, when Parhament 
assembled in l5Si\ Sir AValter Raleigh startled the 
House by declaring that he believed there were "near 
twenty thousand Brownists in England." 

The pamphlets of Robert Browne were still in cir- 
culation, and the Separatists now had a champion 
in a man less brilliant, but with greater streuirth of 
character. This man, Henry Barrowe, who defended 
the principles of Separatism by the final argument 
of martyrdom, was also a man of high social standing. 
In his colleoje davs at Cambridcfe he had led a reckless 
life, and after graduation had turned his attention to 
the law. One Sunday he had gone with a companion 
to hear a well-known Separatist, John Greenwood, 
preach the doctrine of Separatism, and tlie words which 
he had heard so impressed themselves upon him that 
new thoughts began to rankle in his mind. Impet- 
uous by nature, this libertine youtli, who was well 
known both in Eondon and abroad, changed at once 
his course of life, and began a preciseness of living 
which was commented upon with wonder by all his 
acquaintances. 



THE ENGLISH SEPARATISTS 17 

His study of the New Testament carried him be- 
yond the doctrines of Robert Browne, and soon he 
was openly advocating the principle that the doctrine 
of toleration was the logical secjuence of Separatism. 
It was a new doctrine, and the leaders of thought were 
not slow to see that in the development of the liberties 
of the people it was of the greatest importance to have 
ecclesiastical power separated from civil authority. 
Not long afterwards Greenwood was arrested for ex- 
pressing his Separatist views, and Barrowe on visit- 
ing him was also locked up without even the for- 
mality of a warrant, his name and character being too 
well known for the officers to allow him to escape 
liecause of a mere technical breach of the law. For 
five years both men were imprisoned, but during that 
time they succeeded in writing a large amount of manu- 
script, which was printed surreptitiously by their 
friends. They well knew the risk they were taking, 
l)ut religious convictions had become dearer than life, 
and in 1593 both gave proof of these convictions on 
the gallows. 

Two months after their martyrdom another well- 
known Separatist, John Penry, died the same death 
for the same cause. He had been brought up a Roman 
Catholic, and educated at both Cambridge and Ox- 
ford. Because the spiritual condition of his native 
country of Wales had kindled his indignation, he made 
a scathing condemnation of non-resident clergy, de- 
claring that a clergyman wlio never preached was 



18 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

not a true minister of Christ. Later he became a 
Separatist, and not only fearlessly preached his beliefs, 
but with a private printing-press printed the doctrines 
of Separatism. At this time, from some unknown 
quarter, tracts suddenly began to appear, showing the 
abuses of the Church and the oppressions of the day. 
They were full of personalities, their impertinences 
were grotesque, and the scandals of the Church were 
broadly portrayed. Every one was reading them, — 
the court, the politicians, and the peasants. The 
scholars of the university, concealing them under their 
gowns, laughed over them in secret. Each was signed 
" Martin Marprelate," and John Penry was believed to 
be the author, it being kno^Mi that he had a printing- 
press, and that he had long been spreading broad- 
cast religious literature which had a burn and a glow. 
Thus, while the bishops were pursuing their grim 
policy of persecution for the eradication of dissent, 
and were crowding the jails with Separatists and Non- 
conformists, — the jail being the one weapon at their 
command, — they became conscious that the people of 
the land were laughing at them. In their dilemma they 
were forced to make an example of somebody, and 
Penry died on the gallows for advocating liberty of 
worship and the freedom of the press. In this struggle 
against ecclesiastical t\Tanny Barrowe, Greenwood, 
and Penry had been making English history, and with 
their deaths Cono:re<rationalism received its first e-reat 
impetus. 



II 



CHAPTER II 

CONGREGATIONALISM 

The martyrdom of Barrowe, Greenwood, and 
Penry had made more than one Englishman ponder 
over a rehgion that made men wilHng to vindicate its 
principles with 
their lives, and, 
as a conse- 
quence, many 
Puritans in Lon- 
don and in the 
eastern and 
southern coun- 
ties became 
converts to the 
advanced doc- 
trines and 
formed Sepa- 
ratist churches. 
Soon afterwards the Separatists in northern Eng- 
land organized, and in 1605 a church was founded 
in Gainsborough, which was the centre of a strong 
Puritan faction in that section. Here, under the 
pastorate of John Smith, a graduate of Cambridge 
and a gifted preacher, services were held in a hall 
in the manor house of William Hickman, whose 
wife, Rose Hickman, had become an ardent Sepa- 




THE BREWSTKR HOUSE 



20 



OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 



ratist. Ivater, probably in 1()0(>, because of perse 
ciition, John Smith and his church fled to Hol- 
hind, where civil and religious liberty was being 
hammei*ed out at a time when the clang of the anvil 
was scarcely heard in any other part of Europe. That 
same year AVilliam Brewster, who lived in Scrooby, and 
AVilliam Bradford, of Auster- 
field. a small village just north 
of Scrooby, formed a church 
at Scrooby, where they wor- 
shipped in Brewster's house, 
the congregation soon becom- 
ing so large that the service 
had to be held in the stable 
near by. It was this church 
which, outliving all pei*secu- 
tions, became the church 
from which the Congrega- 
tional churches of to-day have sprung, and it was 
these Scrooby worshippers who later became known 
as our Pilgrim Fathers, and the real founders of our 
republic. 

As the Brewster house was on the outskirts of the 
village, just otY the Groat Xorth Road, it was particu- 
larlv adapted for secret iratherinjis. It was on the 
bank of a little stream and so surrounded on the three 
other sides by a moat that it could only be reached by 
a drawlu'idgo which lotl to the village, the house being 
a part of the manor estate of the Archbishop of York. 



1 




I_VDY ROSE HICKMAN 



22 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

"Within this moat, which enclosed four acres of land, 
there was also an ancient palace, a massive building 
of great antiquity, which was abandoned and fast 
going to decay. This palace "was a grete manor 
place within a mote all bylded of tymbre, saving the 
front of the haulle that is of brick. The juner conite 
bylding is of tymbre and is not in compace past the 
4 part of the utter conite." In earlier days it had 
been used by the different archbishops of York in 
going from one part of this diocese to another with 
their splendidly equipped retinues. Here Cardinal 
^Yolsey, when Archbishop of Y'ork during the reign of 
Henry YIH., found shelter after he was disgraced by his 
king whom he had served so long, and here later the 
king himself once spent a night on his way north. 

Adjoining this palace was the house in which Brewster 
T»as living at this time, and, being a newer building 
and still in good condition, it became the manor house 
of the estate now that the palace had gone to decay. 
For many years it had been also used as one of the 
government post-offices for official business, and, be- 
cause it was on one of the four o^reat hio:hwavs of the 
kingdom, the bailiff was brought into frequent con- 
tact with distinguished persons travelling on affairs of 
state. Here Brewster's father had been government 
postmaster and bailiff, and here, soon after Queen 
Elizabeth came to the throne, Brewster was born and 
spent his boyhood. After studying for a time at Cam- 
bridge, he received under William Davison, Queen 



't^BOTDf' 



/ 


I 




2 






F^ 


^ 


8 £ 


) 10 


5 


b 


7 




1 


.11 


|,2 


13 |I^ 


|L,5 



BREWSTER HOUSE 



GATE 



O 

GARDEN |S 
F 

I 



FIELD 






16 



20 



21 



17 



19 



STABLE YARD 



22 



23 



ENTRANCE 



24 



25 



MOAT 



>50YD S^?"lDr 



GROrXD PLAX OF THE SCROOBY Bril.DIXGS 



1. 


Hennery. 


11. 


Milk Pantry. 


19. 


A- 21. Cow Barn. 


2. 


Passageway. 


12. 


ct 13. Rooms. 


20. 


Shed. 


3 


Store Room. 


14. 


Entrance Hall and 


90 


Hav Barn. 


4, 


& 7. Wash Room. 




Stairs. 


23. 


Butchering Room. 


5. 


ScuUerv. 


1.5. 


Living Room. 


24. 


Stock Yard. 


6. 


Pantry. 


16. 


Horse Stalls. 


25. 


Cart Shed. 


S 


& 9. Kitchen. 


17. 


Cow Barn used for 


P. 


Palace. 


10. 


Carriage Shed. 




Church Services. 


D. 


Draw Bridge. 



24 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Elizabeth's Secretary of State, an appointment which 
took him to London, where he saw much of the Hfe at 
court. AVhile hving there, he had accompanied Davison 
on an embassy to Hohand, where his work was so 
highly esteemed that a brilliant political future seemed 
before liim. Not long after their return, however, 
came the fall of Davison, whom Queen Ehzabeth had 
made her scapegoat in order to evade her own respon- 
sibility in signing the death warrant for the execution 
of Mary, Queen of Scots. This ended Brewster's politi- 
cal career, and he returned to Scrooby. Soon after 
tliis his father died, and he received the appointment 
of postmaster which his father had held before him — 
an oflSce making him at once the principal man in the 
village and the most prominent member of the village 
church. 

William Bradford, who was associated with Brews- 
ter in the church at Scrooby, was then a boy of 
seventeen, and twenty-three years Brewster's junior. 
His home in Austerfield, thi*ee miles north of Scrooby, 
was with one of his uncles, his father having died when 
he was little over a year old, leaving him a comfortable 
inheritance. Like his father, Bradford's two uncles 
were prosperous yeomen and of good social positions 
in their neighborhood, so that Bradford had inherited 
more than the ordinary ability of a country boy and 
had probably received more than the usual village 
boy's education. 

At the head of this Scroobv church was Richard 



I 



' 8 




26 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Clyfton, a grave and fatherly man, who because of his 
godly life and the enthusiasm of his faith had made 
many converts to the Separatists' belief. For several 
vears he had been the rector of the village church of 
Babworth, seven miles south of Scrooby, but had lost 
his position because he had refused to subscribe to all 
the canons of the English Church, which were then 
being rigorously enforced. Later he joined the Sep- 
aratist movement, and, when the Scrooby church was 
organized, became its spiritual adviser. 

Soon after the organization of the church he had as 
his colleague John Robinson, a man who had always 
lived in that section and who had such nobleness of 
character and breadth of intellect that his name 
later liecanie well known on two continents. Robinson 
was then thirty-seven years old, with unusual analyti- 
cal abilitv in theoloirical matters and sinoularlv oifted 
in civil ati'airs. Upon leaving college, he took orders 
in the Established Church, but from the first had 
scruples about the vestments and ceremonials insisted 
upon. These scruples finally led to his suspension, 
and this suspension to a separation from his church. 
Joining the Sej)aratist movement, he became pastor 
of a church in Norwich, where "he won men's hearts 
to himself as well as to the truth." Because of his 
influence it was not long before NoinNich men began 
to be excommunicated for " resorting with and praying 
with John Robinson, a man reverenced by all the 
citv for the Grace of Cioil in him." and. when he 



f CONGREGATIONALISM 27 

himself began to be harassed with fines and impris- 
onment, be beheved it was for the best interest of 
the church that he shoukl give up his pastorate. The 
Scrooby church being organized soon after this, he 
joined that body because its doctrines appealed to 
him as more in accord with his understanding of the 
Scriptures than those of the other Separatist churches. 

With such men as these for leaders, it was certain 
that the Scrooby church would not be left long in peace. 
Before these persecutions began, however, there had 
developed between Bradford and Brewster a friendship 
which, both in the Old World and the New, was to be 
deepened by common hardships and common suffer- 
ings, the individuality of each in the New World power- 
fully imprinting itself upon the American people. 

Before the Scrooby church was organized Queen 
Elizabeth had died, and James I. became king. 
Upon his accession to the throne eight hundred of 
the clergy presented to him their famous Millenary 
Petition, asking that a reform be made in the ecclesi- 
astical courts; that the superstitious usages sanctioned 
in the Prayer Book be done away with; that there 
be a more rigid enforcement of the Sunday laws; 
that there be more trained preachers; that the sur})lice 
and the sign of the cross be dispensed with in baptism; 
and that the ring be used in the marriage ceremony. 
In reply to this petition the king had said to his bish- 
ops, "I will make them conform, or I will harry them 
out of the land," and one of the bishops solemnly 



28 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

assured the king that these words were spoken under 
the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. 

Under Bancroft, his " archbishop, non-conformists 
were now hunted and persecuted on all sides, and finally 
when It became known to the authorities that William' 
Bre wster was a Separatist, his commission as post- 
"^^^^ master was taken from him, 

and a warrant issued for his 
arrest, the warrant being 
"against William Brewster 
of Scrooby, Gentleman, for 
Brownism." Of the Scrooby 
Separatists, "some were taken 
and clapt into prison, others 
had their houses watched day 
and night, and the most were 
fain to fly and leave their 
habitations and the means 
William Bradford was also 
wanted by the king's officers, and the tradition is 
that once, while the officers were searching for him 
he escaped arrest by being hidden in a copper caul-' 
dron in the cellar of his house. 

Most of the members of the Scrooby church re- 
morselessly hunted down and with little hope of livin. 
peacefuHy ,n their own land, determined to cross the 
sea to Holland where there was religious freedom for 
all, and where many Separatists had already fled from 
London and other places. Although it was a country 




JAMES 



of their livelihood. 



CONGREGATIONALISM 29 

where they must learn a new language and where 
their only means of livelihood would be by traffic and 
trade, to which, being yeomen and farmers, they were 
unaccustomed, "they were willing to sacrifice all of 
their inheritance which it was possible for man to 
sacrifice in order to make their new plan of life control 
their actions." They knew that it was as unlawful 
to flee as it was to remain without conforming, and, 
since all the ports would be closed against them, it 
Would be necessary, if they were to get away, either 
to bribe the captain of some vessel to take them over or 
to pay exorbitant rates for their passage, as if they 
were felons instead of men with a peaceable r-eligion 
fleeing from causeless oppression. 

After several ineffectual attempts to escape by twos 
and threes, these people in October, 1607, having 
decided to go in a body, secretly chartered a vessel to 
take -them on board at Boston, the nearest seaport town. 
We know how the captain of the vessel betrayed them 
after all were on board, how the authorities took from 
them their money and most of their personal property, 
and then brought them before the Boston magistrates, 
who, after detaining them a month, put seven of the 
leaders, including Brewster, into the prison cells of the 
old Guild Hall to await trial at the higher court, and 
sent the others back to Scrooby. In this Guild Hall 
one can still see the cells on the basement floor where 
Brewster and his companions were imprisoned, these 
being reached from the court-room above by a winding 



30 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

staircase through a trap door. Of the trial of these 
men in the higher Court of Assizes no record has ever 
been found, but we know that the following spring, 
when another attempt was made to get away, Brewster 
and the others were already back in Scrooby. The 
probability, therefore, is that, because their imprison- 
ment w^as making converts to their faith, it was thought 
the better part of discretion to have the cases dismissed 
and the men released. 

They were now obliged to use the utmost caution in 
planning to reach Holland. All were ready to leave at 
a moment's notice, and, when a Dutch sea cajitain from 
the coast of Zecland in Holland was found at Hull, 
willing to take the risk of shipping fugitives from their 
native land, they made a bargain with him to take 
them over. The place from which they planned to 
sail was a desolate spot on the I>incolnshire side of 
the Humber River, near its mouth, where the river 
was nearly five miles wide, Holland being about due east 
three hundred miles away. The nearest seaports were 
Grimsby, eleven miles to the south, and Hull, nine 
miles to the north. It was an ideal place for their 
rendezvous, for the projecting coast line at this point 
hid both seaports. Thornton Abbey, the nearest village, 
was five miles inland, and. although there were a few 
houses at Killinohome, four miles awav, both villaires 
were hidden from the shore bv a low rano^e of hills. 
The shore between Hull and Grimsbv was lar^elv a 
marsh meadow, but at the place which they had picked 



l3 




32 OUK PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

out there was "a large oomoiie a good way distant 
from any towne." This was a tract of a thousand 
aeres of upland, having on the Grimsby side of it a 
narrow inlet, later known as ^lollie Hrown's Cove. 
This place was thirty-six miles from Scrooby, and as 
far as Thornton Abbey there was a good highway, 
with no large town beyond Ciainsborough. It also had 
the advantage oi being a place which could be reached 
by water, for the river Idle. Howing through the meado"sv 
east of Scrooby, emptied into the Trent, five miles 
below Gainsborough, and the Trent into the Humber, 
eighteen miles above this cove. 

As unusual precautions were necessary to avoid 
discovery, it was decided that the women and children, 
with what household goods were to be taken, should 
be sent by water and that the men should go by land. 
Existing records show that the boat with the women 
and children c^uietly sailed after dark down the Idle, 
and that, when the boat had gone, the men started 
across country in twos and threes, resting at daybreak 
in out-of-way places until it again became dark enough 
to make it safe to travel. This journey probably took 
three days, and as, on account of the tides, the trip by 
water would take about the same length of time, it is 
likely that all met at "Mollie Brown's Cove on the same 
day.' 

Here the Pilgrim Fathers, for the last time in Eng- 
land, sutfered persecution: and, although there is no 
memorial to them hore.Rrewster and those with him de- 



con(j;ui:gationalism 33 

cided at this place the destiny of the American nation. 
We know that upon their arrival they waited in vain 
for the vessel which was to take them to Holland, and 
that, when night cjime the hoat with the women Jind 
children, which had been heatinoj back and forth in the 
river, anchored in the cove, and the men went back to 
the foot-hills and camped under the trees. We know 
that the next morning the men anxiously paced back 
and forth along the shore, watching in vain for their 
vessel; that the boat with the women and children 
became aground in the cove, as it was then low tide; 
that the vessel was finally seen coming down the river, 
and that, after dropping anchor, the ship's tender was 
sent ashore. We know what followed: that some of 
the men were at once taken aboard; that the tender 
had started back for its second boat-load when foot 
soldiers and cavalry, followed by the people of the 
neighborhood, were seen coming over the hills; that 
the tender at once returned to the vessel, and the 
captain, fearing arrest, weighed anchor and stood to the 
eastward with a fair wind for Holland; that the women 
and children, still in the boat aground in the cove, 
seeing their husbands and fathers sailing away, and 
knowing that they themselves would be imprisoned, 
were in great distress; and that, during the excitement, 
some of the men on the shore escaped along the river- 
bank, while the others remained to give such aid as 
they could to the helpless women. 

It was a critical moment in the lives of these people. 



34 OUK riAMlH'TlI FOKKFATIIERS 

Oneo bofoiv IkuI \\\c\ tried to osoapo aiul failocL and 
in that snporstitious a^o tlioro niiiiht well have boon a 
Nvavorinix in thoir minds whothor. at'tor all. thoro was 
not a divine disa[>proval of this eontest \n hieh they 
seemed to be making ai^ainst the inevitable. It was 
one of those times of indecision when stiono- minds con- 
trol the weaker ones, and wo know that Robinson and 
Brewster prevailed npon all to accept without tiinchino- 
this new persecution. Little did thev then imagine 
that the stand there taken was to make their cause 
famous, and that their example, thirty-tive years later, 
was to bring about for religious liberty a civil war 
which was to end in the beheading of England's king 
and the rise of a Puritan as dictator. 

At Mollie ]>rown's Conc the future history of America 
hung in the balance, those few hours on the Humber 
being as im|x>rtant in shaping its history as the em- 
barkation later made from Delft Haven, the compact 
signed in the cabin oi the May Flower, or the 
landing at Plymouth Rock. — all so often pictured, 
but in comparison mere incidents in the lives of these 
people. AVe know how the day ended, — that they were 
put under arrest, and only given their liberty after 
being hurried from place to plai-o and turned over from 
one othcial to another, who each in turn was glad to 
be rid of them. Then, some from one place and some 
from another, all finally succeeded in reaching Holland, 
thus breaking the link which bound them to the past. 



CHAPTER III 




THE PILGRIMS IN HOLLAND 

After reaching Holland, these S(*ro()l)y emigrants de- 
cided to settle in Amsterdam, partly })ecaiise it was a 
seaport city where they could easily get em[)loymcnt 
and partly because the followers of John vSmith and 
other Separatists, all self-exiled for the same cause, 
were there. From 
those who had sailc^d 
in the Dutch trad- 
ing vessel and were 
already located here, 
they learned that 
the vessel had 
hardly been out of 
sight of England 
when a gale had driven it far up the coast of Norway, 
where it had several times almost foundered in the 
heavy seas. Once, even the (captain and crew had 
given up all as lost; but after fourteen days tlu^y 
had finally reached Holland, without money or change 
of clothing. 

However, in the new life and the enjoyment of peace 
with lil)erty the past was cjuickly forgotten. Other ties 
as well as those of religion now bound them together; 
for now each knew the calibre of the others, and mem- 
ories of their persecutions for soul-freedom were lost 
sight of in the triumph of their cause. 



ROBINSON .S HOU.se 



36 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Although they were in a country where they were 
free to worship as they chose, their resources were 
small, and they were obliged to make their homes in 
the poorest quarter of the city, some living- on an alley 
four feet wide leading from Barndesteeg Strasse into 
another alley twelve feet wide where most of the others 
lived, this wider alley leading into Achterburgwal 
Strasse. Their homes have long since disappeared, 
but the same old Dutch architecture remains, and the 
very echoes of the place, faint and far as they are to-day, 
recall these people in their conical-shaped hats, broad 
white collars, flowing sleeves, and knickerbockers, 
always content with their lot and willingly working as 
'longshoremen or in the shipping houses or for the 
tradespeople. 

The Protestant wave against Roman Catholicism 
long before this time had swept over Holland, and in 
1579, when Amsterdam adopted the reformed religion, 
the Catholic churches were given over to advocates of 
the new faith. In one of these churches such of the 
followers of Robert Browne as had remained in Holland 
now worshipped, but, dissensions arising in 1600, some 
of these Brownists left the church and worshipped 
in the warehouse still standing at the corner of the 
two alleys where the Pilgrims, ten years later, lived. 
With these men John Smith and his followers, when 
they came to Amsterdam, allied themselves, and with 
them the Scrooby emigrants now worshipped. 

The theological views of these worshippers had not 



THK 1ML(;RIMS in HOLLAND 37 

yet crystallized, tind hetweoii the Hrownists and tlie 
followers of John Smith contentions were common. 
Arminius, an Amsterdam man, was then preachin<>; 
radical doctrines in the University of Leyde!i, and, 
wlien Jolm Smith he<;an to advocate doctrines not 
unlike them, the Brownists expelled him and his 
followers from the church. These exiles then settled 
in Leyden, where, under the influence of Arminius 
and of Episcopius, who succeeded him after his death 
the next year, they lost their identity as a distinct 
reli<;ious hody. The Scrooby peopU^ for a time con- 
tinued to worshi[) with the Brownists, hut Robinson 
and the other discernino; ones amono; them early saw 
that the Brownist faith was driftiniij further and fiu-ther 
froin their own doctrines, and they began to fear 
religious entanglements. Mor€H)ver, brought up as 
they had been in the country villages of England, they 
were not adapted to the life of a conunercial city, where 
both the customs and the language were strange 
to them, and, as poverty had begun to tighten its 
grip upon them, it was decided, after a year in Amster- 
dam, to move to the university city of Ix^yden, for 
in that (piiet inland place they would be more likely 
to obtain congenial em})loyment. A few, however, 
remained in Amsterdam with Richard Clyfton,wh() had 
begun to believe in a less democratic form of church 
government. 

Those who went to I^eyden settled near St. Peter's 
Cathedral, once a Roman ('atholic church, which with 




ALLEY LEADING FROM BARNDESTEEG STRASSE 




ALLEY LEADING FROM ACHTERBURGWAL STRASSE 



40 OUK PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

the Roforiuatlon had become Diiteh Reform. In a 
room opposite this; cathedral these Separatists now 
worshipjxxl according to the simple principles which 
thev believed the New Testament tanght. Dnring the 
eleven yeai*s that thev were here some were employed 
in printing-honses and book binderies, and others in 
the varions trades carried on, a few of the better edu- 
cated ones earning their living by tutoring students. 
Among these was AVilliam Brewster, who received moiv 
than the usual wage both as a proof-reader and as a 
tutor to the Danish and German students (some of 
noble families \ and who devoted his leisure to print- 
ing in the English language books and pamphlets which 
explained the Separatist dcxHrines — doctrines so ob- 
noxious to the Established Church that their sale had 
been forbidden in England. 

So well were these people now groimded in the dcx^- 
trines of Congregationalism tliat thev had no fear of 
being Marj^HHl by the dogmas of Arminius, for they 
had alivady stood the test in the controversy between 
the Brownists and John Smith. John Robinson, now 
their leader, had alrt\idy shown marked ability in di- 
iveting their civil atfaii-s, and, having more than once 
successfully debated in public the soundness of their 
faith, had gained notoriety as a theologian and the 
resptx't of even the men of the I'niversity. The trades- 
people of Eeyden. too, weiv not sUnv in seeing that the 
religion of these men made peaceable, honest, and in- 
dustrious citizens, and, as these Separatists scx^n grew 



THE PILGRIMS IN HOLLAND 41 

to be a body of considerable importance, the success of 
the settlement began to be known beyond Holland, 
and to attract to Holland, Separatists from all parts of 
England. 

AVhile here, they were joined by many who after- 
wards became prominent in America. Among these 
were Edward Winslow, a young man of leisure, who, 
while travelling in Holland, had become so impressed 
with their doctrines that he decided to settle among 
them, and Myles Stand ish, a soldier of fortune, who 
had come to the I^ow Countries in the army of Eliza})eth. 
To Robinson, Brewster, Bradford, and these two men, 
not only a great nation, but the civilized world, owes 
a debt it can never repay. Each was a man of mark: 
the first, a deep thinker and a born leader of men; the 
second, a man of refinement, whose religious faith was 
go deep that no sacrifice was too great to make; the 
third, a man with executive powers that made him the 
head of the colony in America, and for many years its 
governor; the fourth, its ablest financier and a man 
whose great ability later became appreciated by the 
English government; and the fifth, a soldier whose 
courage and sound common sense more than once 
saved the colony from extermination by the Indians. 

I'here is little to tell of their eleven uneventful years 
in Leyden. To assist in the increasing work of the 
church, William Brewster was made an elder, and 
every Sunday and twice each week John Robinson 
expounded the doctrines of their faith in their room- 



42 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

chapel close by the house in which he hved. They 
had come to Holland soon after the beginning of the 
twelve years' truce between the Dutch and the Span- 
iards,— then the two great naval powers of the world,— 
and, now that the truce was nearly over, the Dutch gov- 
ernment had begun active preparations for a continua- 
tion of the war. Everywhere ^^ere armed troops and 
the beating of drums, and with these military prepara- 
tions going on there was the liability that all able- 
bodied men would be drafted. Because of this Robin- 
son and the others felt that it was not a time to take 
chances, for, if they were scattered, the work already 
accomphshed would go for nothing; and, even if un- 
molested, there was the fear that they would be per- 
secuted for their religion, should the Spaniards conquer 
the country. 

None knew better than these reformers themselves 
that the world was not yet ready to accept their relig- 
ion. To these men whose consciences had forced them 
to sacrifice everything for their religion, no project was 
too hazardous to undertake. It was a bold plan, 
however, which the leaders outlined when they de- 
cided that only in the western hemisphere, among a 
people unhampered by Old World prejudices would they 
be sure of freedom in their religious beliefs. As Brad- 
ford afterwards wrote, ''They had great hope & in- 
ward zeall of laying some good foundation or at least 
to make some way thereto for ye propagating & ad- 
vancing ye gospel of ye Kingdom of Christ in those 



THE PILGRIMS IN HOLLAND 43 

remote parts of the world; yea though they should be 
but stepping stones unto others for ye performing so 
great a work." There were also other reasons why a 
move seemed desirable. During the years they lived 
in Holland their children had been exposed to the 
contaminating influence of city life. The Sabbath, so 
dear to them, w^s openly violated; military enlistment 
was now a strong temptation to their young men ; and 
they especially feared that their children by inter- 
marriages with the Dutch would eventually be absorbed 
by these people. 

To the majority of these Separatists the plan of form- 
ing a colony in the western hemisphere seemed imprac- 
ticable, not only because other colonies there had been 
unsuccessful, but especially because they lacked the 
money necessary to fit out an expedition. The judg- 
ment of the few, however, prevailed, and it was decided 
to settle either under the Dutch in South American 
Guiana or under the English in North America. The 
book which Raleigh had published in 1596, giving a 
glowing description of Guiana as a country of perpetual 
summer where everything grew in abundance, had had 
its effect upon them, but, after much discussion, they 
decided that it would not be advisable to live where 
the climate was so warm. There was also the fear 
that, should they settle in Dutch Guiana, the Spaniards 
might massacre them in the same way that the Hugue- 
nots had been massacred in Florida. On the other 
hand, they knew, if they planted a colony in North 



44 OIH ri.YMOUTH FOUKFA TUKUS 

Amorirn. thoiv would bo tho liability oi tho samo por- 
siHution thov had sutVoivd in Kmrlaiul. Since, howovor. 
nianv boliovod that tho kinii' wonUl ^rant thoni froodoni 
ot" ivlii:ii>n. it was dotorniinoil to bo^in no^otiations 
with tho \'iririnia Conipanv for a tract ot* its land near 
onouiih to tho \'iri:inia colony to iiot assistance in time 
of any danger. 

Fivlin^- that thoy wore about to make a pilgriniaixe 
similar to those oi the C^*usadei*s to the Holy T.and, 
auil " that, even if they lost their lives in this action, 
yet thoy might have comfort in the same, and their 
endoavc>r would be honorable." they calUni them- 
selves rili::rims. Kor twelve years they had lived 
within easy sailing distance o't tlioir old homos, whoiv 
thoy would not have Invn v^bliged to grapple with 
|H>verty, but their make-up was such that they never 
waveivd. and thoy weiv now ivady to make the new 
venture. Not only had the hardsliips which they 
had willingly accepted bcvn titting then\ for the Amer- 
ican wilderness, but it had bivn developing in them 
that capacity for practical, e^xtnoniical, and thrifty 
wi>rk without which their attempt at colonisation 
would have Uvn a failuiv. Kven bettor than thev 
knew they buildovi. The [vrstx'utions and ]>rivations 
which had made their tivth come tighter together, and 
their hands shut closer, luul Uvn woKling their deter- 
mination for ivligious fiwtlom into a determination 
to demand fixwlom in all things. The virus prickeil 
into their blood bv tho Koformatii^n was to make them 



THK IMLGIUMS IN HOLLAND 45 

later j)ro(laiin llial in America there should he no 
sueli condition ol" niardvind as ruler and vassal, but 
thai all men were created e<juals, and this virus did not 
run its course until the tea in the IJritish ships had 
been thrown into the docks in Boston Harbor, and 
the Revolutionary soldiers had emblazoned on their 
shirt fronts " Liberty or Death." Such were the 
men who were to weave one more thread into the 
fabric of humanity — men of whom all now speak 
with reverent admiration as the Pilijjrim Fathers. 

The Enf^lish domain which they were destined 
to cokmize was already a well-known country. As 
early as 1574 English ships had begun making an- 
nual trips to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland 
for fish and in L58,S four hundre<l v(\ssels of differ- 
ent nations were engaged there in fishing. In \i'A)2 
Bartholomew Gosnold had planted an unsuccessful 
colony on Ca|)e Ann. Sailing from there across 
Massachusetts Bay, for the purpose of trading with 
the Indians, he had discovered Cape Cod, which he 
so named on account of the larger numbers of co<l- 
fish that he saw there; and, while he was [)lanning 
to make a settlement there, his Cape Ann colony was 
abandoned. In lOO.S, Martin Bring of Bristol, had 
made a trading voyage to this same region, and in 
I()()5, Cham[)lain had visited the New England coast. 
In 1()()7, under the lea(lershi[) of George Bo[)ham, a 
settlement had lu^en made at the mouth of the Kenne- 
bec River, which was abandoned the following sf)ring 



40 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

OD account of the severe winter. In 1G09 tliis same 
New England section had been \4sited by Henrv 
Hudson on liis way to explore the river since called 
by his name: and in 1()14, after twelve years of quiet 
life in England, Captain Jolm Smith, formerly of 
the Virginia colony, with two sliips and four Eng- 
lish merchants had visited the section on a trading 
expedition. Already the French had made a set- 
tlement at Quebec; and, as early as 16 U>, English 
fish-curing and fur-trading stations had been estab- 
lished along the Maine coast, the Island of Monhegan 
being a well-known rendezvous for English fisher- 
men. During the next two years several cx^xHiitions 
were titted out in England for the pur^x^so oi explor- 
ing this Xew England coast, the most im^xirtant one 
being that of Captain Dermer. who remained in the 
country nearly three years, spending several months 
on the Ca[X^ Cod coast and exploring Plymouth and 
Barnstable harlx^rs. his exj^lorations of Plymouth 
Harbor only prcivding the settlouiont of the Pil- 
grims by about a year. 

At tliis time the commcRnal company chartered 
by James I. to colonize English North America had 
been subdivided into two companies, the one known 
as the Si^iuth Virginia Company, ^ith headquarters 
in London, being granted all the southern part of 
North America: the other, known as the North 
Virginia Compiiny. with headquarters in Plyiuouth. 
being granted the land from the latitude of Now York 



THK 1ML(;RIMS JN HOLLAND 47 

to the settlonicnt at Quchco. In I lie frnmts to these 
two companies it was sti{)ulate(l tfiat tiicre sliould 
])(' a liundicd miles of vacjint land l)('tw('on tlie two. 

At the head of the JMymoulh ('ornpany was Sir 
Fenhnando (ior^es, whose eomf)any had started out 
with loo little capital lo enter upon scheines involving 
immediate outlays, and almost I'rorn the first it had 
sou<j;ht to increase its income by leasing or selling por- 
tions oi* its teiritory. Alter a short existence this Plym- 
outh (^omj)any, not proving to he a financial suc- 
cess, sold its proprietary interests to a new company, 
of wliich Gorges was the active memher, this new 
company, which was known as The (Council for New 
England, receiving in November 1()20, a royal charter 
of all land from J^ong Branch, New Jersey, to the 
Bay of Chaleur, Nova Scotia. 

Before this time, however, the Leyden people had 
sent two of their number, John Carver and RolKTt 
Cushman, to London, to negotiate with the South 
Virginia Company for a grant of its land. On ac- 
count of the y)revailing rivalry in colonization, the 
promise of a grant had been easily obtained; but 
from the king they could only o})tain his personal 
consent for religious liberty without the authority 
of the royal seal. For this reason many in the church 
dou})ted the advisability of undertaking the expedi- 
tion; but it was argued that, even if the king's prom- 
ise of freedom in religion should be confirmed by 
a royal seal as large as a house floor, he would find 



48 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

some way of breaking his promise, should he desire 
to do so. 

Since most of them, however, beheved that they 
would not be molested. Carver and Cushman were 
sent again to London to finish the negotiations, and 
to obtain a patent of land under as favorable condi- 
tions as possible. Moreover, they were to use their 
utmost endeavors to interest their English friends 
in their undertaking, in order to obtain the necessary 
money for fitting out the expedition, and to persuade 
London merchants to join the enterprise as a commercial 
speculation. 

While these negotiations were being carried on, the 
leaders of this South Virginia Company had become 
divided into hostile factions and the rivalries which 
had sprung up prevented the completion of the nego- 
tiations for the time being. With matters thus at a 
standstill in London, negotiations were beg^un with some 
Dutch merchants who had a trading settlement at 
Manhattan, afterwards New York. These resulted 
in an offer to Robinson, not only to transport liis 
congregation to their trading post, but to provide them 
with cattle, to give them protection so long as they 
needed it, and to allow the colony self-government in 
local affairs. These terms being satisfactory, Rob- 
inson asked an assurance of protection from the Dutch 
government, whose claims to the territory were dis- 
puted by England. While negotiations with the 
Dutch government were pending. Carver and Cushman 



THE PILGRIMS IN HOLLAND 49 

received a grant ol' land from the London Company 
and returned to Ley den with one Thomas Weston, a 
London merchant, who, with seventy other EngUsh 
merchants, had offered to advance the money neces- 
sary for the expedition, as they expected to make 
large profits from the fishing and fur trade. According 
to Weston's plan, a stock company was to be formed, 
in which the stock was to be divided into shares of 
ten pounds each; each emigrant to be allowed one share 
of stock as his interest in the property, and two days 
in each week to work for himself, then, at the end of 
seven years, a division of the colony's possessions and 
earnings was to be made among all the shareholders. 
The Holland government having, in the mean time, 
refused to give the necessary protection, these articles 
of agreement were signed. This copartnership, which 
was to cost the Pilgrim Fathers seven years of hard 
labor, was in reality their passage money. With nego- 
tiations completed, Carver and Cushman were sent 
back to England to arrange for the voyage and to re- 
ceive the money subscribed by the London merchants. 
Meanwhile those who were to be the first emigrants 
began disposing of their property, in order to have 
money to invest in the enterprise. 

Many Separatists in England now decided to join 
them, and one of their number, Christopher Martin, 
an Essex man, was asked to be their representative 
in making the necessary arrangements with Carver and 
Cushman. Unfortunately, while these details were 



50 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

being settled, some of the merchants who had agreed 
to take stock refused to become stockholders. To 
keep others from withdrawing, Cushman agreed with 
Weston that the part of the contract allowing each 
colonist to work for himself two days in each week 
should be stricken out, and that all labor should 
belong to the company. Meanwhile the Speedwell, a 
small sixty-ton vessel that had been bought and fitted 
out in Holland, lay at the quay in the little harbor 
at Delft Haven on the river Maas, two miles above 
Rotterdam, it being planned that after the voyage she 
was to be used as a fishing-boat. At length, every- 
thing being arranged, a pilot was sent from London 
to sail the Speedwell to England, and a letter was 
brought by him from Cushman, saying that the May 
Flower, a vessel of one hundred and eighty tons, had 
been chartered, and in a few days would sail from 
London to Southampton, where those going from 
Ley den would meet them. On account of the small 
size of the Speedwell only the strongest were selected 
as the pioneer Pilgrims, it being decided that John 
Robinson should stay with the greater number who 
were to remain in Ley den; that William Brewster 
should go over as the head of an independent church 
in the new colony; that Bradford, WinsloAv, and 
Standish should go with him; and that, if the experi- 
ment proved successful, then those who had been left 
behind should undertake the formidable voyage. 
As the time drew near for the departure from Ley- 



THE PILGRIMS IN HOLLAND 51 

den, many came from Amsterdam to say farewell to 
these people embarking in an enterprise which all 
knew was to be a hazardous one, for all were anxious 
to both give and receive encouragement for their com- 
mon cause. That summer day in August, the last 
day of these Pilgrims in Leyden, was spent in their 
little chapel in fervent prayer for guidance. To 
Delft Haven was an eight-hour canal ride, and many 
who had come to Leyden to say a last God-speed — .^ 
now journeyed as far as Delft Haven to share in the 
final leave-taking there. Here, as Winslow wrote, 
*' they feasted us again," and early the next morning 
all met on the quay, where John Robinson gave his 
last advice and his blessing. 

It was a time of sadness, but with the sadness was 
the consciousness that these pioneers were giving up 
their friends from a sense of duty. As the Speed- 
well sailed out of the little harbor and down the 
river to the sea, tears were in every eye, both on board 
and on shore, and when John Robinson, falling on his 
knees, prayed with outstretched arms and watery 
eyes for their safety, all knelt around him. Even 
the Dutch strangers, attracted there from curiosity, 
did not try to keep back their own tears as they watched 
this parting which struck so deep into every heart. 

It was a short voyage to Southampton where the 
May Flower, with the Separatists from London and 
some laborers sent by the I^ndon stockholders, was 
waiting. As the Speedwell was too overcrowded for 




I 3 ^ 



THE PILOHIMS IX HOLLAXn 



oo 



a vovai^o across the Atlantic, many of lu>r passonovrs 
wore transferred to the other vessel. There were now 
no fears of porseeution, as reh^ions prejndiees against 
them had lessened dnrino' their twelve years in Hol- 
land, but new troubles unexpectedly eonfronteil them. 
Weston, who had eome to see them otl". now insisted 
that all should ag-reo to the ehang-e which he and Cush- 
man had u\ade in the t'ompact. and. when thev declined 
to do so without the consent of those in Loyden, he 
refused to give them the hundred pounds necessary 
to get their clearance papers, and in anger returned 
to London. In this dilcuuna they were forced to 
sell most of their butter, oil. and shoe leather, besides 
many of the swords and muskets shipped for use in 
America, and in consequence were obliged to sail 
with an outtit too scanty for the voyage or for planting 
a colony. Tittle did they then appreciate the serious- 
ness of being obliged to sail so poorly equipped, but in 
their casual mention of it, as a mere incident connected 
with their departure, we realize the exhausted condition 
of their resources. 



CHAPTER IV 



THE SETTLEMENT AT PLYMOUTH 

1020 

When the Pilgrims sailed from Southampton, they 
followed the southern shore of England. AVe know 

that on both ves- 
sels many were 
seasick, and that 
at night, when the 
captain of the 
Speed\vell said 
his vessel w^as 
leaking, both ves- 
sels put into 
Dartmouth Har- 
bor for repairs. 
Ten days later a 
second start was 
made, but, when 
they were three 
hundred miles 
beyond Land's 
End, the Speedwell's captain claimed that his vessel 
was unseaworthy, and both vessels sailed back to 
England and anchored in Plvmouth Harbor. We 
know that most of those who had come from Lon- 
don now lost courage and gave up the voyage; 




Copyright by John A . LitwcU Co. 

THE MAY FLOWER 



THE SETTLEMENT AT PLYMOUTH 55 

that otJicTs found their religious enthusiasni was not 
deep enough to withstand seasickness; and that among 
those who abandoned the expedition were Custiman 
and his family. We know that the now over- 
crowded May Flower sailed alone September six- 
teenth, H)2() having on board, besides the captain and 
the crew thirty-four Separatists, eighteen with their 
wives; twenty-eight children under twenty-one years of 
age; nineteen laborers and three maid -servants — in all 
a hundred and two emigrants. We know that when 
half-way across the Atlantic, for days during an equi- 
noctial gale, the vessel sailed under bare poles, that at 
last she became so strained that she buckled amid- 
ships and sprung so many leaks that even the sailors 
became alarmed; that, when the deck was stiffened 
and the leaks caulked, " they committeed themselves 
to ye will of God & resolved to proseede"; and that 
early one morning, to the great joy of all, sixty-six 
days after leaving England, Cape Cod was sighted. 
We know that, as their grant of land was far to the south 
of Cape Cod, they stood to the southward; that in 
tacking they found themselves drifting on to breakers 
among the shoals off the Cape, but were saved from 
shipwreck })y a breeze which had sprung up in the after- 
noon; that they again changed their course, and sailed 
for Provincetown Harbor, which in the light wind they 
reached the next day, Saturday, November twenty-first 
and that, being once more safe, they "blessed the God of 
heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious 



50 OUK PLYMOUrH FOREFATHERS 

ocean, and delivered them from all its perils and 
mi^erie^." 

According to the arraiigeiuent made with the l.ocuion 
Company the settlement was to be south of the Hudson 
River, on what is now the Jersey or Delaware coast. 
Because the charter of the London Company did not 
cover New England, some — probably the laborers — 
began advancing the idea that they were independent 
of any authority. To guard against any inde^XMulent 
action being taken by these men. the leaders resolved 
to make a government for themselves, and accordingly. 
that same day in the cabin of the May Flower, forty- 
one of the tifly-thrtv men entered into a contract mem- 
orable as the tirst reionled sv^nnal covenant giving equal 
riirhts to all men. This compact was the basis of the 
laws of the infant colony, and became the foundation 
of the republican institutions of America. Later, by 
deliberate action, this compact became incor^v>rateii 
into a civil form of government which was the ground- 
work of America's future greatness. "The same day.*' 
wrote Winslow. "as soon as we could, we set ashore 
fifteen or sixttvn men well armcvi. with some to fetch 
woixi, for we had none left, as also to see what the land 
was, and what inhabitants they could meet of." On 
Sunday all remained on shiplxxird, where they held 
their customary services, and gave thanks to Him who 
had brought them safely through so many dangers. 

Winter was now fast approaching, and, as scurvy 
and ship fever had brv>ken out on the May Flower, 



THE SETTLEMENT AT PLViMOl Til 57 

it was tliouglit norossarv to innko a scttloiiUMil at once. 
l>iit hocaiiso of tho saiulv soil it was t)ul of the (juostion 
to locate where tliev were. Tliev knew, liowever, that 
somewhere near here Captain ATartin Prino-, when trad- 
ino- along the Massachusetts coast in I (>():>, had laid 
at anchor several months, where he had found a i^'ood 
harbor and fertile land. Therefore, unless a still t)etter 
place were found within the next few days, they de- 
cided to locate at that place. On Monday, wdien they 
were ready to begin their search. Captain Jones, of the 
]May Flower refused to cruise about with his vessel 
on the ground that he had no chart of the waters, and 
they then deeided to use their own shallop, a small 
fifteen-ton boat. As Winslow wrote, "we unshipped 
our shallop and drew her on land to mend and repair 
her, having been forced to cut lier dow^n in bestowing 
her betwax the decks, and she was much opened with the 
people lying in her which kept us there long, for it was 
sixteen or seventeen days before the carpenter had 
finished her." On Wednesday, while the boat was being 
repaired, Bradford and some of the others — "in all six- 
teen well-armed men, every man with his nuisket, sword, 
and corslet" — went ashore, under the command of 
Myles Standish, to explore the country. liittle did they 
realize that they were the advance-guard of a civilization 
which was to extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
and that this was the beginning of a civilization which 
was to affect the wdiole world. Hardly had they landed 
when, in going around a headland, they unexpectedly 



caino upon six Indians walkini: towards thoni along the 
boaoh. " Fii*>t thov siip^x^sod them to bo Mr. Jones 
the master, and some of his men. for they wei\^ ashore, 
but after they knew them to be Indians they mart^hed 
after them." The Indians, tinding themselves pursued, 
fled to the wooils. and Standish and his men, hoping to 
learn from them something of the eountry. followed 
tliem all that day, and at night, after [nesting three 
sentinels as a precaution against attack, camyxxl on the 
east shore of the Ca[x\ The next day they again 
followed the foot-prints along the shore, and the 
Indians, tinding themselves still pursued, again tied to 
the woods, whert^ Standish and his men. in following 
them, btvame lost in thickets so dense that some of them 
had their armor torn apart. That afternoon the ex- 
plori^rs returned to the west side of the Cape. and. after 
kindling a tire to let those on board know of their 
safety, made camp for the night. During that after- 
noon they had found a good-si.:od pond of fresh water, 
a cleared piece of gn^und where corn had btvn planted, 
some Indian graves, the remains of a house that some 
ship's crew had probably built, and a large iron kettle. 
They had also found, not far from the Pamet River, 
a clearing where corn-stalks wert^ still standing and. in 
holes in the ground heaptxi over with sand, some 
Indian baskets tilled with corn, the tirst th.ey had 
ever stvn. On Friday, taking with them some of this 
corn, they skirted the shoiv of what is now East 
Harbor, but unable to make soundin^fs. as thev had 



TlII^; SI^riTI.KMIONT AT PLYMOUTH 59 



no boat, they returned in the afternoon along the 
shore to the May Flower. 



T Harbor 




THE FIRST EXPLOUINO EXPKDITION 



On Monday, DcGcmber seventh, the shallop being 
ready, twenty-four of the men started on a seeond 
exploration of the coast. Captain Jones and nine 
of the sailors going with them in the long l)oat. 
They sailed first to East ITarhor, where they made 
soundings, hut found it was not suitable for a settle- 
ment, as it did not have enough depth of water for 
vessels. Here they spent the night, and the next 



60 



OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 



day they sailed for the Pamet River, to see the place 
where the corn had been found. When leaving, they 
took with them some ten bushels of the corn, besides 
some beans which they also found. Afterwards when 
they recalled the incident, and remembered that on 
that very afternoon a blinding storm had come, 
which would have made it impossible to find the corn, 
they believed that an inspiration from God had guided 
them that day, and they were more than ever convinced 
that in critical times they were under His special care. 




THE SECOND EXPLORING EXPEDITIOlf 



THE SETTLEMENT AT PLYMOUTH 61 

That afternoon Captain Jones returned to the May 
Flower in the long boat, and fifteen of the others took 
the corn back in the shallop. The next morning the 
shallop returned with other men to continue the ex- 
plorations in the vicinity of the Pa met River, and 
the following day, Tuesday, all returned to the May 
Flow^er. During this trip the weather had become so 
extremely cold that some of those who died later " took 
the original of their death here." During these two 
days they saw whales, seals, and codfish in abundance, 
and so many grampus that they thought of calling the 
harbor Grampus Bay. They also saw the wreck of a 
French fishing vessel that had gone ashore four years 
before, and some deserted Indians' wigwams, but, 
as they did not find any good harbor or a suffi- 
cient supply of fresh w^ater, they returned to the May 
Flower. 

The ground being now covered with snow, there was 
a call for men willing to make a thorough exploration 
of Cape Cod. From those who offered to go, Standish, 
Carver, Bradford, Winslow, and eight others were 
selected. With them Captain Jones sent three sailors, 
the two mates, and a pilot — in all eighteen men. On 
Wednesday, December sixteenth, when they started, the 
weather was so cold that the spray from the shallop 
froze on their clothing, and Bradford in his journal 
wrote, "their clothes were like unto coats of iron." 
That afternoon they made a landing where Eastham 
now is, and, as Indians had been noticed further up the 



62 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

shore, built a rough fort of logs, driftwood, and pine 
boughs. That night, as smoke could be plainly seen 
from an Indian camp not five miles away, they posted 
sentinels. The folio wini^^mornino;, dividinii; their forces, 
some sailed along the shore in the shallop, while the 
others explored inland. At sunset a new camp was 
made not far from their camp of the night before, at a 
place now known as Great ^leadow Creek, the shallop 
coming in at high tide. Here they again made a tem- 
porary fort, and, after building a fire in the centre, lay 
around it for the night. The next morning "after 
praicr thoy prepared for breakfast and, it being day 
dawning, it was thought best to be carrying things down 
to ye boat," for it was necessary on account of the tide 
for the shallop to get out of the creek at sunrise. Ac- 
cordingly, most of them carried down their guns and 
left them on the bank, covering them with their coats 
to protect them from the dew. While they were at 
breakfast in the fort, suddenly strange shouts came from 
the woods, and one of their number rushing in, cried, 
"Men! Indeans, Indeans!" All was now excitement, 
and they were hardly on their feet before arrows began 
flying about them. Two of their number, who still 
had their guns with them, at once rushed to the en- 
trance of their fort, and began tiring at the savages now 
coming out of the woods. AVhile these two men 
guarded the fort, the others made a dash for their arms 
on the shore. The Indians, believing their enemies were 
fleeing, now gave a shout of victory, but in a moment 



THE SETTLEMENT AT PLYMOUTH 63 

the men had returned with their guns, and immediately 
every man was firing. The leader, a large swarthy 
Indian, became the target, and, when splinters began to 
fly about him from the tree behind which he stood, he 
gave a frightened shout, and, with the others, dis- 
appeared. 

This was the Pilgrims' first taste of Indian war- 
fare, and their first contest with a race of men who 
thereafter were to be an important factor in their 
lives. Although the contest was a short one, — for 
the Indians did not then understand the use of fire- 
arms, — it was the beginning of a warfare which was 
not to end until thousands of white men had been 
killed and the Indians had been driven from their 
lands. During this skirmish several coats hanging 
on the branches of the trees around the entrance to 
the fort were riddled with arrows, yet not a man was 
hit. Consequently, there was not one among them 
who did not believe that they had all been saved by 
the providence of God. After firing a few shots in 
the air as a further challenge, the explorers followed 
the Indians through the woods for a quarter of a mile, 
and then returned to their boat, where they offered 
a prayer of thanksgiving for their deliverance. This 
place they named First Encounter. 

But their troubles were not yet over. They had 
left the May Flower after what they supposed was 
the end of a north-easterly storm; but, as they coasted 
along the shore, snow began to fall, and in the after- 



04 OrU rLYMOUTH FORKFATHKRS 

noon tl;o >torni bocanio so violent and made sueh 
a heavv sea that their rudder broke, and they had 
to steer with oars. Then the mast snapjHnh and, 
in goini: overboard, so nearly eapsize*.! the boat that 
for a moment all irave themselves up as lost. In 
their dilenuua they rowed for the shore, hopiuir, with 
the tide now on the ticxni. to bo able to land; but, 
as the breakers were now so hiirh that they eould not 
make a landinir, they were obliged to put to sea again. 
Finally, after houi*s of rowing, they weiv able to get 
under the lea of an island. It was now long after 
dark, and, fearing another attack, they hesitated 
about going ashore; but all were so l>enumbed by 
the cold, that the more ^entu^esome landed and 
kindled a tire. Si>on the others followed, aud before 
long all were asleep from sheer exhaustion. AVithout 
knowing it. they were at the entrance of Plymouth 
Harbor — so named by Captain John Smith six years 
before — and had at last reached the long-sought-for 
place where Captain Pring had anchored in 1603. 
This island they aftenvard nanuxi Clark's Island as 
Clark, the mate of the May Flower, was in command 
of the shallop. 

That night the wind shifted. In the morning, 
when the sun came out, it grew warmer; and. after 
giving thanks to Cod for their deliverance, the men. 
who were too worn out to make further explorations, 
s|^Hmt the day in drying their clothes and in cleaning 
their iruns. The next dav thev held their Sundav ser- 



THE SETTLEMENT AT PLYMOUTH 65 

vices as usual. On Monday, December eleventh (old 
style), or December twenty-first (new style), after mak- 
inj^ soundings of Plymouth Harbor and finding good 
anchorage, they landed on the solitary boulder now 
known as Plymouth Rock. This was the historic 
landing of the Pilgrims, and the boulder is still kept 




THK THIRD EXPLORINO F.XPEDITTON 



as a memorial to these pioneers of freedom who helped 
shape the age. During the two following days they 
explored the country, finding several clearings v^^here 



66 OUK FLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

tiie Indians had planted corn, sewral brooks, and 
se^-e^al exi.vllent springs of water. But what mc^t 
appealed to them was the hill on the shore, when? they 
cx»iild easily build a fortitioation airtuust Indian attacks, 
for it ov»nimanded both the harbor and the land. 
Having been gone a week, and satisfied with what 
they had seen, they retumevi aoi\>?s; Cape Cod Bay 
to IV»Yincetowu Harbor, twenty-live miles away. 

Two days later. IVcember twent\--fifth ^new style), 
the May Flower sailed for Plymouth Harbor but a 
head wind springing up, the captain did not daie beat 
in between the islands and the shore, so the ves^^l lay 
at anchor for the night otT Gurnet Head. The next 
day. Saturvlay. December twenty-sixth, ha^-ing a fcur 
wind they sailevi into Plymouth Harbor, where anchcNr 
\k-as dn>ppevi *' a mile and almost a half off * the shckre. 

The great woi^ of the May Flower was accom- 
plished. Her timK^rs were sprung, her bulwarks 
^rere torn away, and her sails, ** rent by many gales 
and patched by the hands of the sailar«s ** wimi? flap- 
ping against her masts. Unknown h> them>elves, 
these men. who for three months had hved in a 
vt?ssel too small for half their number, were to begin 
a new epoch in civitijation, and to become the con- 
necting link in the chain of evvnts joining the hishMry 
of the Old World with that of the New. 

When these Pilgrim? left Leyden in August, they 
bad expected to build their homes before cold ireather 
came, but the dela>-s causevi bv the unseawoitiiT ci»- 



THE SKTTLKMKXT AT FLYMOrTU oT 

liition of the Speoilwoll aiui by the storms onooiin- 
toRxi during the vovai^? over had bixnight thorn to the 
bloak Now Kiiirlaiui coast at the time when shoUor 
\vas most luvdod. Since all were anxious to i:et the 
colony started as scxni as jx\N>ible. on Monday morn- 
ing an exploring jxirty was sent ashore, it being agret\l 
tliat after their explorations they should pray fof 
divine guidance, and then divide by vote whether or 
not this should be the place for their settlement. C^^n 
^^'ednesday. when the question came up for decision, 
some wished to Kxwte where Kingston now is: but this 
w;\s not thought practicable, as the forests could not be 
cleared in time for planting. Others who advocated 
Clark's Island, wen.^ overruled, as this was not only 
tliickly wooded, but poorly watered. The majority. 
however, were in favor of Kx\iting wheri^ tlie town of 
Plymouth now is. In addition to its topographical 
advantages tliis place had a good supply of water: the 
Indian cornfields were ready for cultivation; straw- 
berry plants were found in abundance, and also tlu- 
sassafras-tree, which was then highly prized by Kun>- 
}x\uis because of its sup].xx<ed medical properties. 
Larg^e numbers of wild fowl of ditferent kinds were 
stXMi. and there were mussel and clam beds along the 
shore. Consequently, this place was de<.nded upon, 
and that aftermx^n eighteen of the more enthusiastic 
built on the shore a barricade, where they slept 
that night. Wednesday. Dtx^ember thirtieth, was 
tlierefore the day of the tirst permanent settlement of 
our Pilixrim Fathers in the New ^Vorld. 



CHAPTER V 



THE BEGIXXTXC, OF NEW ENGLAND 

lo2l 

On Saturday, elaiuiarv second, the Pilgrims began 
clearing the land for their houses. On Sunday the 
guard of twenty men left ashore were alarmed by an 
outcry of unseen Indians, and, although they prepared 

for an attack, none was 
made. Monday, Decem- 
ber twenty - fifth (old 
style), was Christmas 
Day but as this day 
had been made a re- 
ligious festival day by 
an edict of the pope, 
all Separatists de- 
nounced it as non- 
Christian . B r a d f o r d's 
journal saying. " Xo 
man rested all that 
day." At dusk another outcry of Indians was heard, 
but again nothing came of it. Nevertheless, that they 
might be able to defend themselves at all times, it was 
decided to mount their cannon at once on a platform 
on the hill. 

As it was thought best to build their houses between 
the hill and the shore, a street with house lots on both 
sides was laid out parallel with the stream now known 




^*'i 

..-.i;/*'^ 



THE PKPAKTVIIK OF THK MAY FLOWLR 



BEGINNING OF NEW ENGLAND 69 

as the Town Brook. It being also decided to build 
only a few houses, the people were divided into nine- 
teen groups, and, in order to have the houses within a 
stockade, the house lots were made small. It was also 
voted that the size of each lot should be according 
to the number of persons who were to occupy the 
house, and that a piece of ground three rods long and 
half a rod wide should be estimated for each person. 
In order to prevent favoritism, it was further voted 
that these lots should be drawn for, and that the 
houses should be built by those who were to occupy 
them. Before, however, any of the houses were begun, 
a shed for their goods was built. Then a building 
twenty feet square, to be used for a place of worship 
and a general meeting-place; and seven thatch roofed 
log houses, were started. While these were building, 
some of the men lived on board the May Flower, 
and some on shore to guard their property, for they 
were in constant fear of the Indians, who were fre- 
quently heard in the woods near by. 

Hardly had the building begun when the ship fever, 
which had already broken out, began to spread. It 
was the usual typhus fever so prevalent on sailing- 
vessels in those days, and these Pilgrims were now 
paying the penalty of leaving England not properly 
provisioned. To check the disease, most of those 
who were ill were taken ashore and put into these 
partially completed houses, at one time only six of 
the whole colony being well enough to care for the others. 



70 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

During these troubles Captain Jones of the May 
Flower was often brutal to them. He several times 
threatened to sail for England, and, when he found 
that the delay on account of the fever was making him 
short of beer for liis voyage home, often refused to give 
away any. In those days such a refusal was considered 
a great hardship, as, having no milk, beer was the 
common drink of all, tea and coffee being then unknown 
to the English. 

To the colonists these tv\'0 months of January 
and February were months of great discouragement. 
Nearly half their number died, and, after they were 
buried on the bluff now known as Cole's Hill, the 
earth was carefully levelled, that the Indians might not 
know the number, those who survived being so feeble 
that all could have easily been massacred. Some of the 
ship's officers and many of the crew had also died, and, 
as others were still ill, the ^lay Flower was short- 
handed and unable to get away. 

There were now only fifty-three colonists, including 
the w^omen and children. These were not, as is often 
thought, people advanced in years, since only "the 
youngest and strongest" had come over to establish 
the colony, the average age of these first arrivals, 
leaving out Brewster and his wife and Carver and 
his wife, being probably less than twenty-five years. 
Those now left were William Brewster, then fifty-four, 
his w4fe, and their two sons ; John Carver and his wife, 
both of whom died soon afterwards ; William Bradford, 



BEGINNING OF NEW ENGLAND 71 

then thirty-three, whose wife had been drowned while 
the May Flower was in Provincetown Harbor; Ed- 
ward Winslow, then twenty-five, his wife having just 
died; Isaac Allerton, then thirty-two, his son and two 
daughters, his wife having just died; Samuel Fuller, the 
surgeon of the colonists, whose wife came over after- 
wards; Myles Standish, then thirty-six, his wife hav- 
ing just died; Susanna White and her son, her hus- 
band having just died; Stephen Hopkins, his wife, two 
sons and two daughters; Richard Warren, whose wife 
came over afterwards; John Howland, then twenty- 
seven; Francis Cook, then thirty-eiglit, and his son, 
his wife coming over afterwards; John Billington, his 
wife and two sons; Francis Eaton and his infant son, 
his wife having just died; George Soule; Peter Brown; 
Gilbert Winslow, then twenty-one; Edward Doten; 
Richard Gardner; John Aldcn, then twenty-one; Ed- 
ward Leister; William Trevor and one Ely, two sailors 
engaged for a year; Priscilla Mullens, Mary Chilton, 
and Elizabeth Tilly, girls whose parents had just died; 
Desire Minter; Humility Cooper and Mrs. Carver's 
maid; John Crackstone and Joseph Rogers, boys whose 
mothers had not come over and whose fathers had 
just died; Samuel Fuller, then nineteen years old (the 
nephew of Samuel Fuller, the surgeon), both his par- 
ents having just died; and Henry Sampson, Richard 
Moore, and William Latham. Five husbands were 
now left widowers, and one wife a widow; eight hus- 
bands had been buried with their wives; four children 



72 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

had lost both parents, and three had been made father- 
less and four motherless, all but two families having 
lost some member. Such was the work of "the first 
sickness," and there were now left only twenty-two 
men, five wives, ten girls, and sixteen boys — twelve 
of these men not being communicants of Robinson's 
church. 

On February twenty -fourth the survivors met in their 
unfinished rendezvous house, where popular suffrage 
was for the first time exercised in America, John 
Carver by a majority vote being chosen governor, and 
Myles Standish military commander. Such civil and 
military laws as were thought necessary for the govern- 
ment of the colony were also enacted. Before long, 
however, some of those sent over by the London stock- 
holders began to grumble at the strict rules under which 
they w^ere obliged to live, and, as the colony was located 
outside the limits of the grant, to deny the right of 
the others to control their actions. 

On account of the fever the colonists were unable 
to get their stores ashore until March, and, as the 
crew of the May Flower had now recovered, Captain 
Jones began getting ready to sail. At this time none 
of the houses were completed and no fortification yet 
built. It was, therefore, voted to hold the vessel a 
month longer at the expense of the company, believing 
this to be better judgment than to hazard the possi- 
bility of losing everything by allowing her to leave 
before they had some means of defence against the 



I 



BEGINNING OF NEW ENGLAND 73 

Indians. After-events, however, showed that their 
fears w^ere groundless, for one day an Indian came 
boldly into the settlement, saying in his broken Eng- 
lish, " Welcome ! " He was a man with straight black 
hair, short in front and long behind, and, except for a 
fringed girdle of skins about his loins, was naked, his only 
weapon being a bow and two arrows, one of which had 
no head. He told them that his name was Samoset; 
that he was chief of the Monhegan tribe of Indians; 
that he had learned a little English from the sailors 
who came there fishing ; that he had been at Cape Cod 
for eight months on a visit; that the Indian name of 
the place where they were was Patuxet, or the "little 
bay"; that four years before this time the Patuxet 
tribe of Indians had all died of a plague, and that there 
were now none to claim the land. He also told them 
that Massasoit, the chief of the Wampanoags, whose 
people numbered sixty braves, was the grand sachem 
of the Cape Cod confederacy of Indians; that his 
principal residence was at Sowams, forty miles to the 
westward, now Warren; and that the Nausets, a 
tribe to the south-east, a hundred strong, were the 
Indians who had attacked them because one Captain 
Hunt, who had come over with the expedition of Cap- 
tain John Smith in 1614, had carried away seven of 
their braves. The next day Samoset left, and two days 
later returned with five tall, powerfully built Indians 
of Massasoit's tribe, who brought with them some 
beaver skins — a fur then unknown to the English — 



74 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

which they offered to sell. The colonists, however, 
declined to purchase them, as it was Sunday, and the 
Indians, leaving the furs, departed, saying that their 
great chief Massasoit intended to pay a visit to the 
colony. On the following Thursday, Samoset came 
again, this time with Squanto, an Indian who later 
became an invaluable friend to the settlers. Squanto 
was the onlv survivor of the Patuxet tribe, being: one 
of those who had been kidnapped by Captain Hunt to 
sell in Spain, but had been taken to London, where 
he had learned a little English and had afterwards 
returned with the expedition of Captain Dermer. He 
had now come with Samoset to announce that Massa- 
soit was on his way to the colony, and before long 
Massasoit with a large body guard was seen on the 
brow of the hill south of the Town Brook, from where 
he sent a request to the settlement that one of the 
colonists be sent there for a conference. Although 
this was thought a perilous thing to do, Winslow volun- 
teered to oro. Wearino^ his armor and carrvins: side- 
arms, he crossed the brook at the ford, and, after as- 
cending what is now Watson's Hill, disappeared in the 
crowd of Indians. 

Assuring Massasoit that the colonists desired him 
as an ally, Winslow invited him to visit the settlement 
to confer with the governor concerning a treaty for 
their mutual benefit, I^eaving Winslow as a hostage 
and taking with him twenty warriors, INIassasoit de- 
scended the hill, and was mot at the ford bv Standish 



BEGINNING OF NEW ENGLAND 75 

and Allerton and six others in armor. Here a mili- 
tary salute was given Massasoit, and he was then es- 
corted to the rendezvous house. He was a man in 
the prime of life, of ^rave manner and few words, and, 
after the colonists had shown him every courtesy, a 
treaty was made by which it was agreed that neither 
should make war on the other, and that in case of 
any Indian conspiracy against either of them the 
other should render all possible aid. It was also 
agreed that the land formerly occupied by the ex- 
tinct tribe of Patuxet should be considered the land 
of the settlers. This memorable treaty, made April 
first, 1621, secured to the colonists safety for fifty-five 
years, and was one more sacredly kept than many a 
treaty of Christian nations. 

Later, in April, the morning came when from the 
shore these plucky people watched the crew of the 
May Flower hoist anchor. Not one of them had 
asked to be taken aboard, and, as the vessel sailed out 
of the harbor, all waved a last farewell from the top 
of the hill as she passed Gurnet Head and trimmed 
her sails for England. 

New England civilization was now fairly begun. 
The nearest neighbors on the north were the hostile 
French, five hundred miles away in Nova Scotia: and 
on the south the not friendly English Conformists, five 
hundred miles away on the James River. We can 
picture the colony at this time — the seven thatched 
roof log houses along their single street; the rendez- 



76 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

voiis house at the foot of the street where their church 
services were held; the shallop alongside the pier 
where the mouth of the brook broadened into a cove; 
the storehouse near the head of the pier; the clearing 
with blackened stumps on the bluff under the hill; 
the burving-ground of their forty-six companions on 
the edge of the clearing; and the six cannons on a 
platform on the hill, with a rouglily built watch-tower 
near by. 

We know that during April John Carver died, and 
that William Bradford, although not fully recovered 
from the fever, was chosen governor, Allerton being 
made his assistant; that Squanto now came to live 
with them, and showed them where in the Town Brook 
they could best catch fish. We know that the able- 
bodied men now worked in the Indian corn fields, get- 
ting the land ready for the crop which was to give 
them food the coming winter; that the wheat and peas 
brought over from England were now planted and 
later the Indian corn which they had found in Decem- 
ber, as Squanto told them that this should be done 
when the leaves on the oaks became as large as the 
ear of a rabbit. 

We know that in July, after the planting, Winslow 
and Hopkins were sent with Squanto to visit Massa- 
soit, '* to know where to find them if occasion served, 
as also to see their strength and discover the country." 
We know that ''they took with them a horseman's 
coat of red cotton and laced with sHo-ht lace for a 



BEGINNING OF NEW ENGLAND 77 

present, that both they and their message might be 
more acceptable among them." The message, which 
shows the friendly relations already existing between 
them, was as follows : " Foreasmuch as his [Massasoit's] 
subjects came often and without fear upon all occa- 
sions amongst us, so we were now come unto him, 
and in witness of the love and the good will the Eng- 
lish bear unto him the governor hath sent him a coat, 
desiring that the peace and amity that was between 
them and us might be continued. Not that we feared 
them, but because we intended not to injure any, 
desiring to live peaceably, and as with all men so 
especially with them our nearest neighbors. But 
whereas his people come over often and very many 
together unto us, bringing for the most part their wives 
and children, they are welcome, yet we being but 
strangers as yet at Patuxet, alias New Plymouth, and 
not knowing how our corn might prosper, we could 
not longer give them such entertainment as we had 
done and as we desire still to do, yet if he would be 
pleased to come himself or any special friend of his 
desired to see us, coming from him, they should be 
welcome., And to the end we might know them from 
others our governor has sent him a copper chain, de- 
siring, if any message should come from him to us, we 
might know by bringing it with him, and harken and 
give credit to his message accordingly. Also request- 
ing him that such that have skins should bring them 
to us and that he would hinder the multitude from op- 



78 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

pressiiiir ii> with them. And whereas at our tirst ar- 
rival at Paomet, called hv us Caj^K^ Cod, we found 
there corn buried in the ground and finding no in- 
habitants but some graves of dead new buried, we 
took the corn, resolving if ever we could hear of any 
that had right thereunto to make satisfaction to the 
full for it. yet such we understood the owners thereof 
were Hed for fear of us our desire was either to pay 
them the like quantity of corn. English meal or any 
other commodities we had to pleasure them withal, 
requesting liim that some of the men might signify 
so much unto them and we would ciMitent him for his 
pains. And last of all our governor requestino; one 
favor of him, which was that he woukl exchange some 
of their com for seed witli us, that we might make 
trial which best agreed with the soil where we live.** 

S<-~>on after this Hobomok, a pinesse or counsellor 
of Massasoit's tribe, joined the colony, and proved a 
faithful friend until his death. As he was of large 
size and his courage well known to the Indians there- 
abouts, he and Squanto were sent, in August, to trade 
witli the Pocassets, a tribe fourteen miles inland. On 
acc(.>unt of their friendship with the English. Hobomok 
and Squanto were attacked by these Indians, and 
Hobomok. making his escape, returned to the settle- 
ment, leaving S^^uanto a prisoner. The colonists, 
learning from Holx^mok wliat had happened, at once 
sent Standi>h. with fourteen men. to rescue Squanto, 
for all know \vhat the etVect would be on everv Indian, 



l^EGINNING OF NKW ENGLAND 79 

should such trcachoiy be allowed to pass unnoticed. 
We know that Standish and his men surrounded the 
Indian villaoo, and that their warlike attitude so terri- 
fied tlie Pocassets tliat the Indians released S(juanto, 
and promised future <(ood behavior. This prompt 
action of tlie colonists in sending a handful of men 
against an Indian stronghold had shown to the Ind- 
ians what kind of men they had to deal with, and it 
so gained the respect of all Cape Cod Indians that 
several chiefs now besought Massasoit to make an 
alliance for them with a foe so formidable as these 
men had proved themselves to l)e. The result was 
that the standing of the colony in the community 
became much strengthened, and, having now friendly 
relations with all the tribes, the colonists were able 
to do some profitable trading with the goods brought 
over in the May Flower. 

As it would be a l)enefit to the colony to establish 
friendly relations with the once powerful tribe of 
1 Massachusetts, in September Standish and ten of the 
I colonists, with Squanto and two other Indians as 
I guides, were sent in the shallop to Massachusetts Bay, 
I as Boston Harbor was then called. This was the first 
I visit of any of the Plymouth colonists to this section; 
for, although the harbor was well known to the traders 
J and fishermen of all the maritime nations of Europe, 
no attempt liad as yet been made to plant a settle- 
ment there. Leaving with the ebb tide on the night 
of September twenty-ninth, Standish and his party had 



so OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

expected to anchor in tlio harbor the following day, as it 
was only forty-fonr miles away. On a^xxiunt of li^lit 
winds, however, they only reached the outer harbor 
late in the afternoon, and dropped anchor that night 
o& Thompson's Island. The following morning, going 
ashore near where Qnincy now is, an Indian squaw 
told them that the chief of her tribe, who was then at 
the Xeponset River, could tell them wheiv the chief 
of the Massachusetts might be found. From here 
Squanto went with her in her canoe to tind her chief, 
and the others followed in the shallop. From this 
chief they learned that the squaw-sachem of the Massa- 
chusetts lived on the ^[ystic River. With this Indian 
guide they sailed across the bay to the Charles River, 
noticing with admiration its broad expanse and the 
islands, many of which showed the remains of the 
Indian plantations which Captain Smith had seen 
there seven years before. At night they anchored 
where the ^Ivstic tiows into the Charles, and the next 
morning, leaving two meri to guard their boat, went 
inland as far as Medford. The news of their arrival 
hail preceded them. They came upon several deserted 
wigwaniiJ, and at one place found some Indian squaws, 
who finally induced a brave to show himself, but not 
until he Avas satisfied that these strangers had not come 
to injure him or his people did he. "shaking and tremb- 
liuix for feare." show lumself. As all they could learn 
of the whereabouts of the squaw-sachem was that 
*'shee was far from thence." thev now returned to the 



BEGINNING OF NEW ENGLAND 81 

l)oat, accompanied by the squaws, wlio in their eager- 
ness for trade "sold their coats from their backs, and 
tied bonojhs about them, but with great shamefaced- 
ness, for indeed they were more modest than some of 
our Enghsh women." That night with a fair wind 
and a full moon the men sailed for Plymouth, which 
they reached the following noon. 

This trip was the first recorded exploration of Boston 
Harbor. Seven years before. Captain Smith, when 
sailing along the New England coast, had named a 
river — which the Indians told him flowed " many 
days' journey into the entrails of that country" — 
the Charles River, but he had not located it. So 
Siandish really "was the first to impose such a name 
upon that river upon which Charlestown is built." 
In their going and coming they had traversed the entire 
bay, noticing its great size and its many islands. From 
the reports which they carried back to Plymouth it 
is, therefore, not surprising that all could not help 
"wishing that they had been there seated." 

During this autumn they harvested their small crop; 
traded with the Indians; supplied themselves with 
wild ducks, turkeys, and venison for the winter; and 
made clapboards to be later shipped to England. They 
had already begun to exercise the functions of a fully 
developed state: had chosen officers, m^ade laws, 
organized a militia, established trade relations with the 
Indians, and negotiated a treaty offensive and defensive 
with the Indian confederacv. On a small scale, there- 



82 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

fore, they had estabHshed a democratic commonweaUh 
which they were successfully developing. Their crop 
of corn had liberally repaid them for the labor ex- 
pended, the wheat brought from England had yielded 
moderately, and, although their crop of peas had 
failed, they were able to look back with satisfaction 
upon their first year in this new country. 

To commemorate the year's work, they set aside a 
day for public rejoicing, and to their feast invited their 
Indian ally ^lassasoit, who came with ninety warriors. 
This festival gathering of fifty-three white settlers, 
including the women and children, and ninety-one 
Indians inaugurated the first Thanksgiving Day 
ever held in New England. Of this Thanksgiving 
festival Winslow wrote: ''Our harvest being gotten in, 
our Governor sent four men on fowling, so that we 
might after a special manner rejoice together after 
we had gathered in the fruit of our labors. Thev four 
in one day killed as nuich fowl as served the company 
almost a week. At this time, among other recreations, 
we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming 
among us, and with them their great King, Massasoit, 
with some ninety men, whom for three days we enter- 
tained and feasted, and they went out and killed five 
deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed 
on our Governor and upon the Captain and others." 

On November nineteenth, the Fortune, a small 
vessel of fifty -five tons, unexpectedly arrived with thirty- 
five new settlers, amono- them being Brewster's eldest 



BEGINNING OF NEW ENGLAND 83 

son, Winslow's brother John, and Robert Cushman, 
Most of these new arrivals were strong, rugged men, 
yet few of them appreciated the seriousness of the un- 
dertaking upon which they had entered. They had 
brought over with them a patent from the New England 
Company, taken out in the name of John Pierce, one 
of the London stockholders, which covered the section 
in which they were located, but they had not brought 
a supply of food. Two weeks later the Fortune 
sailed for England, and Cushman, who had been sent 
over by the London stockholders to examine the affairs 
of the colony and to get the settlers, if possible, to assent 
to the article in the compact rejected at Southampton, 
went back in her, taking with him a cargo of clap- 
boards, sassafras, and two hogsheads of beaver and 
otter skins. On this return voyage the vessel was 
captured by the French, then at war with England, and 
its cargo, valued at over three hundred pounds, con- 
fiscated, but the vessel and those on board were al- 
lowed to sail to England. Although this pioneer cargo 
from the infant plantation was lost, so that the stock- 
holders received nothing for their first year's work, the 
colonists, notwithstanding their discouragements and 
their great loss in numbers, had shown that they had 
conscientiously worked for the interests of the com- 
pany. 

Since they had been obliged to restock the Fort- 
une with food for the return voyage, and, moreover, 
must provide food for the new colonists, an estimate 



S4 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

was made of the supply on hand, and, when it was found 
that there was not enough corn to last them until thev 
could harvest their next crop, it was thought neces- 
sary to put all upon half allowance. In consequence 
they were now obliged to live largely on fish food 
and what game they could get. But on this scanty 
diet they worked steadily through the winter, in good 
health and with unabated courage. 

One glimpse which we get of their daily life that 
winter shows the seriousness with which everything 
was undertaken. It was Christmas morning, and 
Bradford and the other men were starting as usual 
for their work, when the new arrivals refused to go 
because it was Christmas Day. Upon hearing their 
objections, Bradford told them, if it were a question 
of conscience, they need not work. When, however, 
Bradford on returning at noon found that these men, 
notwithstanding their consci-mtious scruples, had been 
making the forenoon a holiday, — some making wagers 
in pitching an iron bar at a stake, and the others 
iramblincr over a irame of stool ball. — he told them 
that he, too, had a conscience wliich would not permit 
him to let them play while the others worked, and, 
takinir from them their bar and the ball, commanded 
them to stay in their houses and keep the day with 
proper devotion if they attached a '^anctity to it. AYith 
this admonition the incident ended, and after dinner 
these men went to work, never again asking for a holi- 
day not enjoyed by all. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE SCARCITY OF CORN 



1622 

During the winter of 1621-22 the colonists built 
another shallop, and in the sprin<2: received a declara- 
tion of war from the Narra- 
gansetts, a powerful tribe of 
Indians living on the further 
side of Buzzards Bay. This 
tribe could muster two 
thousand warriors, and 
against them forty or fifty 
Enghshmen, even with fii-e- 
arms, were far from being 
a fair match. So implicitly, 
however, did the Pilgrims 
believe that their God would 
protect them that they at 
once accepted the challenge, for their belief in their 
destiny always gave them a religious courage which 
more than once saved them from annihilation. We 
all know that with this declaration of war a Narrajran- 
sett Indian left at the settlement a bundle of arrows 
wrapped in the skin of a rattlesnake, sent by the chief 
Canonicus; that Governor Bradford sent him back 
with the message that, although the colonists desired 
peace, if war was wanted, they need only come to 



u 


U] 


\1 


'^^ 




mm 


i 




gj 



MYLES STANDISH 



86 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Plymouth; and that only the want of boats prevented 
the colonists seeking them in their own country. Such 
defiance had not been looked for ; and, a few days later, 
when the skin filled with powder and bullets was sent 
to Canonicus, it so frightened this bellicose chief that 
he refused to receive the mysterious parcel. 

Preparations for the impending war were now begun 
by building from the shore around the hill to the Town 
Brook, a stockade, which with the brook on the south- 
erly side and the harbor on the easterly side would 
fairly well protect the settlement. In this stockade were 
built four projecting bastions, from wliicli with their 
muskets the settlers could prevent the outside of the 
wall being set on fire by the Indians. In three of 
these bastions were put hea^y gates, which at night 
were kept locked, with a guard stationed at each. It 
had taken three weeks to build the stockade, and during 
that time Standish had organized the men into four 
companies, and all able to carry muskets were drilled 
in military manoeuvres. The result was that the settle- 
ment had now quite a military appearance, and, this 
becoming known to the Narragansetts, so alarmed them 
that they gave up all thought of attacking it. 

In INIarch, as soon as the weather became warmer, 
it was decided that Standish and ten others, with 
Squanto and Hobomok as interpreters, should go in 
the shallop to ^lassachusetts Bay for corn, as their 
supply was nearly exhausted. When they reached 
Gurnet Head, three shots, the signal of danger, brought 



88 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

them back. Upon investigation it was found that 
Squanto, jealous of Hobomok, had arranged to have 
one of his family tell Governor Bradford of a con- 
spiracy between Hobomok and Massasoit, hoping in 
this way to get Hobomok expelled from the colony. 
As soon as these facts became known, Standish 
with Squanto, Hobomok, and the others again started 
on what proved to be a successful expedition. On 
their return, Massasoit, having heard of Squanto's 
duplicity, was waiting for his arrival, so enraged 
with him for using his name in the deception that 
he had determined to kill him. With much difficulty 
Massasoit was finally pacified by Governor Bradford, 
and returned home, but soon afterwards sent a mes- 
senger demanding that this instigator of strife be exe- 
cuted — a demand which, according to the terms of the 
treaty, he had sl right to insist upon. As his request 
was not complied with, he then sent messengers with 
beaver and other skins as a gift, besides sending his own 
knife with which Squanto's head and hands were to be 
cut off and brought back as evidence of his death. It 
was now a question between disregarding a solemn 
treaty w^hich would make the Indians lose confidence 
in the white man's word, and the gratitude of the colony 
to the man who had so often helped them. In his 
dilemma, Bradford made one excuse after another for 
not summoning Squanto before him for trial, until at 
length the messengers left in anger, and for a time the 
colonists lost Massasoit as a friend. 



THE SCARCITY OF CORN 89 

In May some Nauset Indians brought word to the 
colony that an unknown shallop was making its way 
from the eastward towards the harbor. It proved to 
be the shallop of the Sparrow, a small vessel partly 
owned by Weston, which with thirty other English ves- 
sels was fishing on the Maine coast. On board the 
shallop were seven passengers, who brought with them 
a letter from Weston, telling the colonists that he was 
about to establish a separate settlement near Plymouth, 
and asking them to care for these men until his two 
vessels arrived with the new settlers. These pas- 
sengers had also brought from the captain of one of the 
fishing fleet — John Huddleston, a man unknown to 
them — a letter telling them of a massacre by the Indians 
of three hundred and forty-seven settlers in Virginia, 
and begging them to be on their guard against a similar 
uprising of the Cape Cod Indians. 

By June the colonists had no corn in their storehouse. 
Although sixty acres of land had been planted, the 
corn had not yet grown, and that summer they were 
obliged to live almost wholly on lobsters, clams, and fish. 
When the Sparrow's shallop returned to the fishing 
fleet, Winslow was sent in one of the colony's shallops 
to get grain, and, although the different captains gave 
him what they could spare and refused to accept any 
payment, he was able to obtain but little. The scanty 
supply brought back, however, was enough to allow 
each colonist four ounces a day until harvest time, and 
this, added to their otherwise unvaried diet of marine 



90 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

food, was, from a sanitary point of view, invaluable. 
Because of this scarcity of corn, it was thought 
advisable to keep the stock locked up, each one's 
allowance beinoj weighed out dailv and distributed 
from the storehouse. Fortunately there was but little 
illness, and although some of the colonists lost flesh, 
while others became bloated from the want of proper 
food, none became discouraged. 

That summer the colonists, both on account of the 
Virginia massacres and on account of their fear of the 
Narragansetts and the loss of Massasoit's friendship, 
decided to build at once a fort on the summit of the hill. 
Few, however, were able to work on this fort as they 
could have done with proper food, the cultivation of 
their large field of corn alone being as much as their 
strength allowed. Its construction consequently went 
on slowly; for in their enfeebled conthtion it was slow 
work dragging to the top of the hill the necessary 
timbers, most of which had to be brought long dis- 
tances. The fort was therefore unfinished when winter 
came. 

During this summer, Weston's two ships, the Char- 
ity, a vessel of one hundred tons, and the Swan, of 
thirty, arrived with sixty colonists, most of them hard 
characters. When the Charity departed for Virginia, 
and the Swan in search of a suitable place for the new 
settlement, these new emigrants were left at Pl}Tnouth, 
and, as the Charity had brought over a suflScient sup- 
ply of food, the Pilgrims willingly gave them such 



THE SCARCITY OF CORN 91 

sleeping accommodations as they could. This kindness 
the new arrivals repaid by sneeringly calling the Pil- 
grims "Brownists" and by robbing the cornfields in 
order to have roasted green corn. Later some of the 
Plymouth settlers themselves were also caught stealing 
corn, and were publicly whipped, but the colonists 
were in such need of food that it was impossible to 
entirely prevent these depredations. Upon the return 
of the Charity and the Swan in six weeks, these new 
emigrants were taken to the place picked out for their 
colony, eighteen miles north of Plymouth where Wey- 
mouth now is, but their sick were left at Plymouth in 
the care of Dr. Fuller. 

In September the Discovery arrived in the har- 
bor on its way from Virginia to England, and the 
colonists obtained from the captain, in exchange for 
their beaver skins, some provisions and a stock of beads 
and knives to be used in trading with the Indians. 
With these articles they now expected to be able to 
purchase food from the natives, and so opportune did 
the arrival of this vessel seem that they attributed it to 
** God's good mercy." 

In October the Charity sailed for England, leaving 
enough provisions to last the Weymouth settlement 
until the next harvest. But, as this supply was soon 
wasted in a reckless manner, it was not long before 
the new-comers were in as much need of food as the 
Plymouth settlers. In their dilemma a brother-in-law 
of Weston, Richard Greene, who was in charge of the 



92 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

colony, proposed to Bradford that both colonies unite 
in taking the Swan around the Cape to get corn. 
This was willingly agreed to, as so much of the green 
corn at the Plymouth colony had been stolen. With 
Standish in command and with Squanto as pilot and 
interpreter, twice the expedition started and twice the 
vessel was driven back by storms. The third time 
when they w ere ready to leave, Standish being ill with 
a fever, his place was taken by Bradford. 

At Chatham on the further side of the Cape eight 
hogsheads of corn w^ere obtained, and while here 
Squanto, who had become sick with fever, died. Be- 
fore his death he asked Bradford to pray that he might 
go to the Englishman's God in heaven, and then as a 
remembrance of his love bequeathed what few goods 
he had to his English friends in the colony. As these 
explorers now^ had no pilot, it was thought best to return 
to the colony, but, after rounding Cape Cod, they stood 
over to Massachusetts Bay, hoping to get corn there. 
Here they found that the Weymouth colonists by 
their prodigality had already destroyed all possibilities 
of any trading being done with these Indians, so they 
sailed to Eastham, where they succeeded in obtain- 
ing ten hogsheads of corn and some beans. Here the 
shallop which they had taken along was blown on 
to the rocks during a storm and wrecked, and, as it 
was now difficult to get any grain out to the Swan, 
Bradford had it stacked on the shore, and em- 
ployed an Indian to look after it until sent for. At 



THE SCARCITY OF CORN 



93 



Barnstable they obtained ten more hogsheads of corn, 
which were also stacked, and from here they sailed for 
Plymouth, where the cargo was divided, Bradford, who 
returned from Barnstable by land in order to explore 
the country, being able to purchase a little more corn 
on the way. But the small supply obtained was only 
enough to carry the colony through the winter, and it 
was evident that before the next harvest came they 
would again be in sore need of proper food. 







I- ^ 



..1 




%.' V 



V 



AT STANDISH'S fireside 



CHAPTER YII 



THE FIRST INDIAN CONSPIRACY 



1623 

It was now the Pilgrims' third year in the new coun- 
try. Two additional buildings for their merchandise 
^,^ and a few more houses had been 

w^i^i built, but the fort was still unfin- 

ished, as many had thought it un- 
necessary and had pronounced it 
"vain-glorious." 

In January Standish, after pur- 
chasing some corn at Sand- 
wich, had been able to get 
off the rocks the shallop 
that had been wrecked in 
Eastham Harbor, and, 
after repairing it, brought 
back in it the corn 
stacked on the shore two 
months before. In Feb- 
ruary, as their stock was 
again running low, he was 
sent to Barnstable to ob- 
tain, if possible, another supply of corn. The 
Barnstable Indians, professing great love for him, 
brought him a large amount of corn, and, the har- 
bor freezing over at sunset so that he was unable 




A CAPE COD INDIAN 



THE FIRST INDIAN CONSPIRACY 95 

to get away, the Indians insisted that he and his men 
should spend that night with them on shore. This 
invitation Standish and the others accepted, and, on 
arriving at the Indian camping-ground, found there 
several Indians of other tribes who pretended that 
curiosity to see white people had brought them there. 
Standish, however, instinctively feeling that he and his 
men were in danger, kept a part of his men on watch 
while the others slept, and they afterwards learned that 
this precaution saved them all from massacre. 

In March, the Indians made another attempt to 
take the life of Standish while he and some of the col- 
onists were at Sandwich, getting the corn purchased 
there in January. By some strange instinct, all that 
night, while his men were asleep, Standish paced rest- 
lessly back and forth before the camp-fire, telling the 
Pamet Indian who had been sent there to murder him 
that he could not account for his sleeplessness, and the 
would-be assassin — ^Indian-like — dared not attack him 
while awake. 

Soon after their return from this trip a report came 
to the colony that Massasoit was dangerously ill, and 
Winslow was at once sent with Hobomok to do what 
they could for him. During their second day's journey 
to his camp some Indians told them that Massasoit 
had died, and Hobomok, fearing for the safety of all 
white men, urged Winslow to return to the settlement. 
Believing that a visit to the tribe would strengthen the 
questionable friendship, Winslow determined to keep 



96 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 



t 



on, and late that night he and Hobomok reached Massa- 
soit's home at Sowams. Upon their arrival they found 
Massasoit still alive, but his wigwam was so crowded 
with Indians that it was difficult to get near the sick 
bed. The Provahs, or priests, were then in the midst 
of their incantations for the dying, and were making, 
as Winslow said in his journal, " such a hellish noise 
as it distempered us that were well and therefore unlike 
to ease him that was sick." After giving Massasoit 
some medicine and sending an Indian back to Plymouth 
to get from Dr. Fuller still more efficient remedies, 
Winslow nursed him all that night. Before the mes- 
senger returned, however, Massasoit had begun to re- 
cover, and on the following day was out of danger. 

This visit proved a fortunate one, especially since, 
on the day before Winslow's arrival, a visiting sachem 
had tried to convince Massasoit that the English had 
deserted him when he was ill, and were not his friends. 
Upon his recovery, therefore, he could not too warmly 
or too constantly express his gratitude, often saying, 
"Now I see that the English are my friends and love 
mt, and while I live I will never forget this kindness 
they have shown me." 

For some time among nearly all the Cape Cod Indians 
there had been a hostile feeling towards these strangers 
who had come among them. The Indians, living as 
they did in wigwams, looked with envy upon the 
cottages at Plymouth and Weymouth, and their ab- 
original minds coveted the furniture, clothing, weapons. 



THE FIRST INDIAN CONSPIRACY 97 

and trading goods of the white man. It needed little 
to stir this innate cupidity into a conspiracy to ex- 
terminate the settlers, and a grievance was found 
soon after the formation of the Weymouth settlement, 
whose members had shown little, if any, restraint 
towards the Indians. Frequent complaints had come 
to Plymouth from the Neponsets, a tribe of Indians 
living in that section, that these Weymouth settlers not 
only insulted, but often robbed them. As early as 
March these new colonists had exhausted their own 
stores and seed-corn, and began stealing corn from 
the caches where the natives stored their supplies. 
Later, when the Indians, with now only a scanty 
supply for themselves, refused to sell them corn at 
any price, the Weymouth men began planning to 
seize this supply, but were finally dissuaded by Brad- 
ford, to whom some of the more honest Weymouth 
settlers had written of the contemplated action. As 
the stores in the Weymouth settlement were exhausted, 
most of these colonists now left their well-built village, 
enclosed within a strong palisade, to camp in the woods 
and along the shore, where they could easily get nuts, 
mussels, and clams, only a few of the men remaining in 
the plantation, vainly trying to bring about a better state 
of affairs. Finally, the condition of the settlers became 
so destitute that nearly all, in exchange for food, sold 
to the Indians portions of their clothing, and in conse- 
quence many were half naked as well as half starved. 
Squalor and demoralization were everywhere. Rich- 



98 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

ard Greene, the head of the colony, died, and one 
Sanders, who had been put in command, went to Mon- 
hegan to purchase provisions. The Indians, knowing 
their demorahzed condition, now became overbearing 
and abusive, and began plotting to massacre all in 
the settlement, but, well knowing the make-up of the 
Plymouth settlers, realized how severely they would be 
dealt with unless these colonists were exterminated. 
For this reason the original plot was enlarged to a 
general massacre. Into this conspiracy most of the 
tribes had willingly entered, Massasoit, who during his 
illness had been urged to join, alone refusing. In fact, 
two attempts made in February and March upon the 
lives of Standish and his men had been a part of this 
conspiracy, for the Indians were shrewd enough to 
know that with Standish out of the way their task 
would be easier. 

While the plotters were still at work persuading the 
different tribes to join the conspiracy, Massasoit proved 
his real friendship to the Plymouth settlers. He had 
learned of the conspiracy only a few days before the 
arrival of Winslow and Hobomok at Sowams, and on 
the day of their departure, calling Hobomok into a 
secret counsel of his pinesses, or counsellors, had there 
divulged to him the plot, telling him to let Winslow 
know of it on their way back to Plymouth. He also 
told Hobomok to explain to the people of Weymouth 
that they must strike the first blow, for he was con- 
vinced that, if they waited, they would be massacred. 



THE FIRST INDIAN CONSPIRACY 99 

and, with the destruction of that colony, the Indians, 
crazed by the sight of human blood, would easily over- 
power the Plymouth settlers. He further charged 
Hobomok to tell the colonists that, although he was the 
nominal head of these hostile tribes, he had no control 
over their actions, and that, if the settlers valued their 
lives and those of their countrymen, they must at once 
put to death the leading Neponset conspirators. This 
report of Hobomok, which, when they reached the 
settlement, they found corroborated by a friendly 
Indian, gave the colonists great anxiety. At the annual 
town meeting to be held April second, now at hand, 
it was voted that Standish should take a sufficient 
number of men, and, under the pretence of making a 
trading trip to Weymouth, warn the settlers and seize 
and execute the conspirators. 

On April fourth Standish sailed for Weymouth, tak- 
ing with him only eight men, as he feared a larger num- 
ber might so alarm the Indians that they would keep 
away from the settlement. In Weymouth Harbor the 
Swan lay at anchor, with nobody on board, and the 
captain of the vessel, whom he found ashore, assured 
Standish that the Indians were so friendly that 
he kept no fire-arms about him, and allowed them to 
lodge with him whenever they pleased. At this time 
the colonists were living in fancied security, and were 
scattered in every direction, but, following Standish's 
advice, the leaders of the colony now told the others 
that on pain of death all were to remain within the 



100 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

settlement, and, to prevent tlieir straggling away, 
Standish every morning gave to each a pint of corn 
from his supply in the shallop. 

The unusual action of the colonists soon brought 
into the settlement an Indian spy, who pretended to 
have come to sell furs, and who, upon returning to his 
village, reported to his people that, while Captain Stan- 
dish spoke smoothly, his eyes showed anger. The con- 
spirators, believing their plot discovered, immediately 
became defiant, and several, including the leading 
conspirator, Wituwamat, came into the settlement 
whetting their knives and making threatening gestures 
in front of Standish. The little captain, apparently, 
showing only indifference, waited all that day for the 
chief conspirators to come to the settlement, but on 
the second day, as they did not come, he called Witu- 
wamat and three of the conspirators into a room where 
three of his own men were, and shut the door. A 
hand-to-hand struggle followed, and, although the 
Indians fought desperately, three were killed, and 
the fourth, who was taken alive, was immediately 
hanged. Outside two others were killed, and, when 
Standish himself came out, he killed a seventh. 

The news of what had happened was not long in 
reaching the Indian village. The next morning, when 
the warriors of the tribe were seen approaching in 
Indian file, Standish and four of his men, withHobomok 
and two of the Weymouth men, went out to meet them. 
Both tried to gain the advantage of a hill near by. 



THE FIRST INDIAN CONSPIRACY 101 

but, Standish and his men reaching it first, the Indians 
from behind trees immediately began firing at them 
with their arrows. The skirmish, however, had hardly 
begun when Hobomok, throwing off his coat, rushed 
toward them, and so great was the superstitious fear 
that the Indians had for a pinesse that they fled before 
him, the only casualty on either side being the breaking 
of the arm of one of the conspirators by a shot fired 
from the hill. Several Indian women who had l)een 
held as captives were now released, and the next 
day the Weymouth settlers, having seen enough of 
New England hardships, put their movable property 
aboard the Swan, fastened the gates of their palisade, 
and, after borrowing some corn from Standish, sailed 
for Monhegan, with the hope of getting passage from 
there to England on one of the fishing fleet. 

The few settlers who still wished to remain in Amer- 
ica now returned to Plymouth with Standish and his 
men, Standish taking back with him the head of Witu- 
wamat. The colonists, knowing that their greatest 
danger would always be from a combined uprising of 
the Indians, put the head upon a pike which was 
fastened to a corner of the fort. They still had in 
mind the massacre of the Virginia colony, and de- 
liberately took this gruesome method as the only 
practical way of affecting the aboriginal mind, and 
so the head, with its long black hair waving in the wind, 
was allowed to remain outlined against the sky, — an 
object-lesson in case another Indian conspiracy should 
ever be thought of. 



102 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

This attempted annihilation of the colony did not 
become known in England for several months. When, 
in December, John Robinson heard of it, he wrote 
to Bradford a letter in which he severely criticised 
Standish for the severe measures resorted to at Wey- 
mouth — a criticism which Standish keenly felt. From 
a humanitarian viewpoint Robinson may have been 
right, but it was fortunate for the colony that a man 
like Myles Standish was on the ground and that John 
Robinson was three thousand miles away, for little 
did either then appreciate to what extent the fate of 
Anglo-Saxon civilization in the western hemisphere 
depended upon having the Cape Cod Indians thor- 
oughly understand that the Plymouth colonists could 
not be trifled with. Soon after writing this letter, 
Robinson died, so that to him Standish was never 
able to justify his action, but thirty years later, when 
the little captain himself lay dying, he wrote in his 
will, "I give three pounds to Mercy Robinson, whom 
I tenderly love for her grandfather's sake." 

This action of the colonists had so thoroughly terri- 
fied the Indians that for some time none dared go n-ar 
the settlement, the chief of the Neponsets changing^ 
his sleeping-place every night. As it proved, the Cape 
Cod Indians were now subdued forever, and fifty 
years later, when Indian hostilities were waged against 
the settlers of Massachusetts, these Indians did not 
forget that they were alhes of the Plymouth colonists. 

It was not long after this Indian conspiracy had been- 



THE FIRST INDIAN CONSPIRACY 103 

nipped in the bud that Weston appeared at Plymouth. 
Under an assumed name and in the disguise of a 
blacksmith, he had come over with the Maine fishing 
fleet. Upon arriving on the Maine coast, he learned 
of the abandonment of his colony, and, taking two 
men and a small trading stock in the Swan's shallop, 
sailed for Weymouth to see what could be done to 
re-establish the colony. During a storm off Rye 
Beach the boat was capsized and the stock lost, and, 
when Weston and the two men reached the shore, the 
Indians seized their guns, clothing, and the few things 
that they had saved. From a Scotchman, located 
near the mouth of the Piscataqua River, they obtained 
a few garments and proceeded to Plymouth, where 
Weston so persistently pleaded poverty on account of 
his Weymouth and Plymouth ventures having been 
unremunerative that Bradford and those at the head 
of the Plymouth colony secretly loaned him a hundred 
beaver skins, "enough to make a mutinie among the 
people, seeing there was no other means to procure 
them food which they so much wanted." This 
secret use of the property of the colony was the only 
act for which Bradford was ever criticised. With 
these skins Weston returned to Maine, and, being 
now able to purchase a small stock of goods, fitted out 
the Swan for a trading expedition along the coast. 
But the loan he never repaid, and so great was his 
bitterness toward the colonists that the skins were 
hardly stowed away in his boat before he openly 



104 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

boasted that he would get the leaders into trouble for 
exceeding their authority. 

As the spring of 16'23 advanced, it became evident to 
all that the Plymouth colonists would again be short of 
corn. This was due largely to their having to provide 
for those who had come over in the Fortune and to 
their losing such a large quantity of green corn from 
the fields the year before. Although they were able to 
get ducks, wild turkey, and an occasional deer, which 
with fish, lobsters, and clams would carry them through 
the summer and fall, the vital thing now was to devise 
some plan to have enough corn for their use during 
the following winter. 

During the two previous years, communism had 
been tried under more than ordinarily favorable con- 
ditions, for it was a community of sober, industrious 
people. The few lazy ones, however, shared equally 
with the industrious, and this discouraged production 
and put a premium upon indifference. The assump- 
tion, too, that all the settlers should be on an equality — 
not only have alike, but be alike — had much to do, 
as Bradford wrote, in taking away "that mutual re- 
spect which is good to preserve in a community." 
With the feelinfj of discontent ffrowin^:, the leaders 
decided that for a year a separate piece of land should 
be assigned to each household on the basis of an acre 
for every member; that each family should raise his 
own crop, to be cultivated as the holder desired; that 
the different lots should be drawn for; and that a 



THE FIRST INDIAN CONSPIRACY 105 

portion of each crop should be delivered into the pub- 
lic storehouse in order that the stockholders should 
receive a return for their investments. Under this 
plan a much larger area was planted, as it inspired 
greater individual industr}\ There was now that 
personal responsibility which was sure to secure the 
best results; and "the women now wente willingly 
into the field and took their litle-ons with them to set 
corn when before they would aledg weakness and 
inabilitie and whom to have compelled would have 
been thought a great tirinie and oppression.** 

By the time the seed-corn was planted their last 
year's crop was exhausted, so that during the three 
months before harvest time the colonists were without 
corn, their only grain for bread. As they now had a 
fishing net, a few cod lines and hooks, the men in 
relays of six or seven took one of the shallops and 
fished for cod, and, as these squads were not to return 
without a supply of fish, the boat was sometimes away 
five and six days at a time. Standish in the mean time 
was sent in the other shallop to the Maine fishing fleet 
for provisions. Although he was able to purchase 
but little, the colonists were never on the verge of star- 
vation, as has been so often written, for fish and wild 
fowl could be had in abundance, and clams always 
could be dug at low water. Of these times liradford 
wrote, "They bore their hardships with great patience 
and in spite of scanty fare God in His mercy preserved 
both health and life." Even Brewster, who had en- 



106 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

»^joyed the luxuries of court life, gave thanks to God 
each day "that he and his were permitted to suck the 
abundance of the seas and of the treasures hid in the 
sands." 

In July the ship Plantation anchored in the har- 
bor, having on board Francis West, whom the Coun- 
cil for New England had made admiral over its 
territory for the purpose of obtaining a revenue from 
the fishing fleet. While the vessel was here, the cap- 
tain, seeing how necessary it was for the colonists to 
have provisions, offered to sell to them two hogsheads 
of peas, but at such an exorbitant price that most of 
the colonists refused to submit to the extortion, al- 
though before the vessel sailed some did buy small 
quantities. 

Fourteen days after the departure of the Planta- 
tion the Anne, a vessel of one hundred and forty 
tons, arrived, and ten days later the Little James, a 
pinnace of forty-four tons. Both vessels had left 
England together, but had become separated during 
the voyage over. On these two vessels there were 
ninety-six new settlers. As several of these arrivals 
were the wives, children, or kindred of the earlier 
settlers, many families were now reunited. Among 
them were two of the daughters of Elder Brewster, 
the wife of Samuel Fuller, Mrs. Southworth, who 
afterwards married Governor Bradford, and Barbara — 
her last name being unknown — ^w ho later became the 
wife of Myles Standish. But the new-comers found 



THE FIRST INDIAN CONSPIRACY 107 

the colony far different from what they had pictured. 
The log houses seemed rough and unattractive when 
compared with the English homes which they had so 
lately left. The clothes of many of the settlers were 
torn and shabby. The food was lobsters, clams, and 
fish, and the only thing which they had to drink was 
water. Scanty fare, constant exposure, hard and grind- 
ing toil, had taken the freshness from the faces of all. 
"Seeing this, some wished themselves in England 
againe; others fell a weeping, fancying their own 
miserie in what they saw in others." 

As the new arrivals had brought with them a sup- 
ply of food sufficient to last until they could raise a 
crop for themselves, they decided not to deliver over 
this stock for the common use, fearing lest it also be 
soon exhausted. On the other hand, many of the 
colonists, who had worked early and late to raise a 
crop for themselves, thinking that the supply brought 
over in the Anne would not last these new settlers 
until the next year's harvest, were unwilling to have it 
contributed to a stock for common distribution. It 
was, therefore, agreed that the stores brought over 
should be the exclusive property of the new-comers, 
and that the coming harvest should belong to those 
who planted it. 

There were still other compHcations, as forty of the 
new arrivals wished to form a separate colony within 
the colonial grant. These called themselves Par- 
ticulars in distinction to the other colonists, who 



108 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

were called Generals, After a conference, however, 
it was agreed that the Particulars should have land 
assigned to them within the town; that, excepting 
military duties, they should be free from all labor 
expected from the others; that they should carry on 
no trade with the Indians ; that they should contribute 
annually to the public treasury a bushel of corn for 
each man over sixteen years of age; and that they 
should obey all laws enacted by the colony. 

For seven weeks there had now been no rain, and the 
growing corn was beginning to wither and die. A 
third failure of the corn crop would probably mean the 
abandonment of the colony. Hobomok was already 
mourning over the ruined crops, and even the most 
courageous among them had begim to despair. " Above 
all people in the world, they felt that they had now 
need to cast themselves upon God for his mercies,'* 
and, accordingly, a day was appointed for public 
prayer. The hot July day on which the services were 
held was never to be forgotten by the Pilgrims. From 
morning till night, in their sanctuary on the hill, they 
prayed for rain, but the sky remained without a cloud, 
and the hot sun continued to parch their fields of corn. 
About sunset, however, as they were starting down the 
hill to their homes, after nine hours of prayer, clouds 
began to gather, and that evening it began to rain. 
This rain continued at intervals for fourteen days. Of 
the incident Winslow wrote, "It was hard to say 
whether our withered corn or our drooping affections 



THE FIRST INDIAN CONSPIRACY 109 

were most quenched and revived, for such was the 
bounty and goodness of God." Upon Hobomok and 
the Indians the event made a deep impression, and from 
that time they often spoke of the wonderful goodness 
of the white man's (jod. Among the colonists there 
were but few who did not believe it a special dispensa- 
tion, and, accordingly, they set apart a day for prayers 
of thanksgiving, this day being the second Thanksgiv- 
ing Day of the Pilgrims. 

On September twentieth the Anne sailed for Eng- 
land with a cargo of clapboards and what furs they had 
on hand, the Little James being left for a fishing and 
trading vessel. Those obviously unfit for pioneer life 
who had come over in the Anne were also sent back 
in her at the expense of the colony. Winslow also re- 
turned in her to purchase many things needed, and to 
devise some plan with the London stockholders for 
the future welfare of the colony. Already the harvest 
season was at hand, and as there was a sufficient supply 
of corn for the coming year, and the more industrious 
had grain to sell, all were now convinced of the advan- 
tages of individual labor. In fact, never after this time 
was there a want of corn in the colony. 

Later that month, word reached Plymouth that 
the Paragon with Robert Gorges, the son of P'erdi- 
nando Gorges, and some new settlers had arrived at the 
deserted village of Weymouth. He had brought with 
him from the Council for New England a commission 
making him governor-general of its whole territory. 



no OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Under this commission there were to be assixnated with 
him as conncillors Admiral West, one Captain Chris- 
topher Levitt, tlie governor of the Plymouth colony, 
and such other men a^ he should appoint, full authority 
being given him and any two of his council to dtxnde all 
civil and criminal case«!. He had at once notified 
Gt)vernor Bradfoni of his arrival, but, before Bradford 
was able to pay him a visit, the Paragon put into 
Plymouth Harbor during a storm, while on it^ way to 
Maine where Gorges was going for tlie purpose of ar- 
resting AVeston. At Plymouth Gt^rges remained two 
weeks, much pleased with the place and the courtesies 
shown him. AVhile the Paragtm was here, the Swan 
came into the harbor with AVeston on board. Hardly 
had the Swan dropped anchor before AVeston was 
called to account by Gorges for the frauds prac- 
tised on his father and the bad management of 
the AVeymouth settlement. AVeston. through the inter- 
cession of Bradford, being twice saved from arrest. 
leaving the Paragon to be fitted out for Mrginia. 
where she was to take some of the piisseiigers who 
had come over in her. Gorges returned to AVey- 
mouth by land, but hanily had he gone before Weston 
began to ridicule the fact that Bradford had saved him 
from arrest. A few days later Gorges. re^xMiting of his 
leniency, had Weston put under arrest, and brought to 
Weymouth, where he was kept that winter. The fol- 
lowing spring he was allowed to leave in the Swan 
for Virginia, and from that time, except as their con- 



THE FIRST INDIAN CONSPIRACY 111 

stnnt ilofaiuor. novor ni::aiii iroubloil the IMynunitli 
folonists. At'tor a iVw nu>nths at AVcvnioiitlu (loro-os, 
fiiulino; the roiigli lit'o of Now Knoland not to liis taste, 
ivtuniod to Knoland, some of the Wovmoiith colony 
iXi>ini;" iKU'k with liini, others goiiii:; to Virginia, ami the 
fow wlio remained being given aid from time to time 
by the Plymonth colony. After the departnre of Ciorges 
no sueeessor was appointed in his place, and more than 
sixty years passed before anotlier governor-general was 
pnt over the Plymonth colony. 

In November of this year, l()vJ.S, while the Para- 
gon and the Swan were in Plymonth Harbor, the 
(hatch on the roof of one of the houses caught fire during 
a carousal of some of the sailors ashore, and, before the 
flames could be extinguished, four t>f the houses were 
destroyed. As these houses were close to the store- 
house where the trading goods brought over in the 
Anne and the colony's winter supply of food were 
kept, there was the greatest excitement. AMiile some 
were advising the removal of the goods from the store- 
house, an unknown voice shouted out that the settlei*s 
nuist be on their guard, as there were enemies among 
them, and, during the confusion, smoke was seen com- 
ing from the shed attached to the storehouse. From 
a firebrand found it was evident that an incendiary was 
at work. The timely discovery of the firel)rand, how- 
ever, saved the storehouse from being destroyed. From 
remarks overheard during the fire many of the colonists 
iilways beUeved that an attempt was made that night 



112 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

bv the discordant element among them to desstrvw the 
eolonv. 

With Giiipes tl\ei>e had been sent over by the Coun- 
cil for New Eiiirlaiid a olei^vman of the Establishovl 
Churvh, with full authority to re^rulate all pubUc wor- 
sliip in tlie territory-. For neariy a year this man made 
his home m Plymouth, studyiiiit the anthropology of 
the Indians and tlK* natural histon* of the tx>untn-. 
During this time, seeing the kind of men he would have 
to deal with, and that it wac> easier to confer powejn$ in 
the Old AVorid than to enfoixx^ them in the Now. ho 
said nothii\g of his eoolos^iastioal ^x^mniission. C^nlv 
after he loft did those Congrvgationalist settlor? know 
that he had had full pt>wer to compel them to conform 
to the Chun^h of England fram which they had separateii 
at so gTvat a siioritioe. 

Although this fii^it attempt to establish confonnity 
came to iK>thing. many who w^ere ik>w in the colony 
were opfxvseil to religious freedom, and anwng the 
Particulars many were secretly at work promoting 
this opposition. This nwx^n^nt was begim by pri- 
x-atoly sendii\g to lA^ndon in tho Anno ^vmplaints 
that tlK^ro wjis much religious ^vnti\>\-eTsy in tho eolonv ; 
that iteligious exemses were i^eglected by the diffei^nt 
families on Sunday: that iHMthor of tlK* two sacra - 
nnnits was useil: and that the ohildrvn werv not cate- 
chised or taught to read. IVhind these complaints 
it was obvious tliat there was a hidden puq>ose to bring 
thesse Se^varatists Ix^ok to Episcopacy. Robinson had 



rilK l-lRsr IMMAN CONSriKACV llo 

already siis^Hvtod what was boino- attoinptod. ami had 
written to Hrowstor that the London stockholdors 
wore oontinnally raising- i-ibjootions to oithcr hinisolf 
or any of the Loydon (.hnri'h pooplo ooin^: to Plynionth. 
** I porsuado niysolf." ho wroto, "that for nu\ thoy of 
all other are nnwillin^- I slunild ho transported. . . . 
thinking if I conio ovor thoir niarkot will ho niard in 
many rt^ij^ards." 

With the ok^so of this yoar thoro woro ono Innulrod 
and oighty porsons in tho c\^lony. I'p to this timo tho 
only rooords woro tho niinntos mado in (lovornor 
Bradford's noto-hook. bnt with t]\is lar^or colony it 
was thonght nooossary to havo a statnto book. Tho 
tirst ontry. datod Pooombor twonty-sovonth. markod an 
important dovolopmont of tho colony, it boing rooordod 
that "all criminal acts and all matters of trespass and 
debt between man and man shall be tried by the 
verdict of twelve honest men." Trial by jnry as tho 
rio:ht of every ono was thns for tho tirst timo estab- 
lished in America — a stop which was the beginning of 
a long series of enactments which later became tho 
.standard of American jnrisprndence. 

The settlement now stretched down the slope o{ tho 
hill to tho bay. Wo see tho stockade, with it> fonr 
bastions — this stix^kado, which wa.s half a mile in 
length, beginning on tho shore beyond Cole's Hill and 
extending around Fort Hill to tho brook: tho bastion 
near tho shore having a gate which opened to the 
beach bevoml: tho scw^nd bastion on the bhitV with 



THE FIRST INDIAN CONSPIRACY 115 

a gate which opened to the Indian path leading to 
Massachusetts Bay; back of Fort Hill the third and 
largest bastion, wliich defended the position most ex- 
posed on account of the high land beyond having no 
gate; and close by the Town Brook the fourth bastion 
with its gate opening to the "Nemasket path'* which 
led to Xarragansett Bay. We see on the top of the 
hill the fort-church which played such an important 
part both in the civil and ecclesiastical life of the 
colony, so located on the easterly side of the top of 
the hill that it commanded the brook, the ford, and the 
street. AVe know that this fort, twenty-four feet square, 
was built of large sawed plank; that its flat roof was 
supported by large oak beams which projected beyond 
the walls to prevent the building being scaled; that on 
the roof were six cannons mounted behind a bulwark, 
and that underneath, to light the interior, were small 
windows like port-holes. We know also that these one 
hundred and eighty settlers now had thirty-one small 
houses, most of them divided into three rooms with a 
loft overhead; that they were of hewn logs, with 
thatched roofs and outside chimneys of stone laid in 
clay; and that the windows were the skins of animals 
or paper saturated with linseed oil. We know that 
now there were houses on both sides of the street which 
had been laid out the first year, as well as on a cross 
street leading from the ford over the brook to the gate 
in the stockade on the blufi^; and that, where the two 
roadways crossed, four small cannon commanded both 
roadways. 



116 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Although the colonists were not properly equipped 
for pioneer life, we know that the settlement — made 
up largely of young married people, as the older mem- 
bers of the church had not yet come over — had now 
an atmosphere of thrift and prosperity; that every 
house had its vegetable garden, and most of the houses 
blooming vines running over them; that Governor 
Bradford's house was under the hill at the corner of the 
two roadways; that further up the hill was Myles 
Standish's house; and that Elder Brewster's house 
was on the corner diagonally across from the gover- 
nor's house where there was a spring of water. We 
know that the cottages along the main street were en- 
closed by a fence high enough to be used as a stock- 
ade in case of any sudden attack by Indians when 
within the settlement, and that this gave to the street a 
very trim appearance; that at the foot of the street the 
buildino: which was once used as their meetinor-house 
was now used for their trading stock, and had attached 
to it a large shed made of interwoven boughs chinked 
with clay; and that under the bluff were three log 
buildings where corn, furs, beaver skins, heavy mer- 
chandise, salt, and the tools of the colony were stored, 
these buildings being near the pier where their two 
shallops lay. The colonists had long known that the 
brook afforded a passage to a favorite spawning-bed 
for herring, and Squanto had told them that this fish 
made good manure for their cornfields. Following his 
ad\nce, we know that there had been built across the 



THE FIRST INDIAN CONSPIRACY 117 

brook two dams, with a gate in the lower one from 
which two long arms, built of planks, extended out to 
direct the course of the herring as they nosed their way 
up the brook; that between these two dams ten and 
twelve thousand herring would often come with a single 
tide; and that, when the gates were closed and the 
water went out with the ebb tide through the lattice 
in the lower dam, the fish were taken out in baskets 
and put into the ground with the seed-corn. 

We also know a little of the daily life at this time: 
that poultry, goats, and swine now supplied the settlers 
with eggs, milk, and pork; that they frequently had 
venison, wild ducks, and wild turkey; that every morn- 
ing Governor Bradford assigned to the men whatever 
pubHc work was necessary, either clearing land, making 
clapboards to be shipped to England, hewing out timber, 
making tar and soap, or trading with the Indians ; that 
the rest of the time the men did as they chose, either 
working in their cornfields, digging clams, getting lob- 
sters or fishing, and hunting, as game was plentiful, — 
all carrying their guns with them wherever their work 
might be. We know that at this time letters from home 
came only t\;\^o or three times a year; and, although the 
colonists were isolated from the rest of the world, that 
the men met after sundown to talk over the affairs of 
England and their own local politics, while their thrifty 
housewives gossiped and built air-castles. We know 
that Bradford was always busy with the e very-day de- 
tails of the colony and in settling the trivial disputes 



118 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

which were constantly arising; that Standish was oc- 
cupied in training the men in miUtary manoeuvres and 
in posting the different sentries on the bastions and at 
the fort; and that Brewster had to prepare two long 
sermons for each Sunday, but worked in the corn- 
fields during his spare time, which, however, was sel- 
dom, as his nature was so sympathetic that all came to 
him with their griefs. 

To the colonists, life was too serious for idleness or 
frivolities, and from sunrise to sunset all were busy. 
Within the stockade several Indians were always 
wandering about, as a great deal of trading with the 
different tribes was now carried on, and at the wharf 
and in the storehouse there was always more or less 
activity and bustle. The oppressive quietness of 
Sunday was broken only when, morning and afternoon, 
the beat of the drum called the colonists to church. 
At this time all met in front of Standish's house, and, 
led by a sergeant, silently marched up the hill to the 
church. Behind the sergeant walked the governor 
in his long robe; on his right, Elder Brewster in clerical 
clothes; and, on liis left, Standish, carr\^ng his side- 
arms. Then came the colonists and their families 
in twos and tlu-ees, all wearing wide white collars 
and long white cuffs, the men with liigh conical-shaped 
hats, knickerbockers, buckled shoes, and blouses 
belted at the waist, each with his musket or firelock. 
These they carried into their fort-church with them, 
and kept beside them, that they might at all times be 
ready for an attack by Indians. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE FIRST ALLOTMENT OF LAND 

1624 

The beginning of the new year in England, prior to 
1752, was on March twenty-fifth. As the new year of 
1624 approached Gov- 
ernor Bradford de- 
chned a third election, 
for he believed that one 
of the purposes of an 
annual town meeting 
was to have the offices 
held by different per- 
sons. The people, 
however, insisted upon 

re-electing him, and, there being now many duties con- 
nected with the government of the colony, five " assist- 
ants'* were also elected, this council, which was in- 
creased to seven members in 1633, being the beginning 
of executive councils in the United States. 

The experiment of allotting land to the colonists, 
made the vear before, had not onlv insured a ffood 
crop of corn, but had also given to the more industrious 
a surplus. "Those who had some to spare began to 
trade one with another for small things by ye quaret 
potle & peck, etc., for money they had none, and if 




A SHALLOP 



120 OrR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

they had come it was preferred before it." Com hav- 
ing now taken the pUice of money, the colonists, know- 
ing that if they could have the same land for successive 
years it could be brought into a good state of culti- 
vation, petitioned the governor and council to allot them 
definite tracts until the contract with the London stock- 
holders shoidd expire in lt>^7. After careful con- 
sideration this petition was granted, and, although the 
o;overnor and council knew it was a \'iolation of their 
contract with the stockholders, they divided two hun- 
dred acres of the land into ninety-seven lots, and allotted 
an acre to each of the one hundred and eighty people 
in the colony. As a part of this land was outside the 
stockade, this allotment brought about the first spread- 
ing out of the settlement — a part being across the 
Town Brook where Hobomok, their faithful Indian 
ally, received one of the lots for himself and his family. 
It was about this time that Winslow returned in 
the Charity, Bradford writing, " The ship came on 
fishing — a thing fatal to this plantation." So strong, 
however, were the Londoners possessed with the 
fishinij mania that Cushman had sent over a letter 
saying. "* I am sorry we have not sent you more and 
other things, but in truth we have run into so much 
charge to victual the sliip, pro\-ide salt, and other 
fishing implements, etc., as we could not provide other 
comfortable things as butter, sugar, etc." While in 
England, Winslow and Cushman had obtained a 
errant of land bordering: on Gloucester Harbor, the 



FIRST ALLOTMENT OF LAND 121 

patent for Avhich AViiislow brought over with him. 
Here the colonists now built a fishing- stage to cure 
codfish on, and left a man in charge to trade with the 
Indians for beaver and other skins. Winslow also 
brought over a bull and three heifers, "the first 
beginning of any cattle in the land." These were 
pastured outside the stockade where grass was abun- 
dant, but on accoiuit of wolves some one was always 
left in charge of them. A shipwright and a salt- 
maker had also come over in the Charity. The ship- 
wright built two shallops and a large scow for getting 
their cargoes ashore, and, while getting out timber 
for a small tAAO-masted vessel, died of a fever. The 
salt-maker, after several expensive failures at salt- 
making both at Plymouth and Gloucester, was finally 
obliged to abandon the attempt. 

Now that the colony was proving a success, the 
majority of the London stockholders, being Puritans, 
beoan intrio:uino: to ^et it under Puritan control. This 
the colonists were not lono^ in findino- out. Thev also 
knew that the bishops and those in authority were 
opposed to a Separatist colony on the ground that all 
England's colonists should conform to the religion of 
the State, and, although the Plymouth settlers were ap- 
parently remote from interference, the English prelates 
kept themselves well informed of the religious move- 
ments in the colony and were ever ready to interfere 
whenever and wherever they saw the opportunity. 
They had also the hope that these emigrants, now 



122 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

without their pastor, John Robinson, wonld fall back 
into the forms and faith of tlie Estabhshed Church. 

AYith these ideas in mind there had been sent over 
in the Charity one John Lyford, a clergyman of the 
Church of England, with his wife and four children. 
Both Winslow and Cushman had opposed his coming, 
but, as the schemino: London stockliolders acjreed that 
he should have no pastoral position if the colonists 
did not see tit to otfer it, Winslow and Cusliman, not 
knowing that a plot was under way. tinally yielded 
for the sake of peace. Lyford not long after his ar- 
rival professed conversion to Congregationalism, and 
obtained membership in the church. He also offered 
to renounce his Episcopal ordination, but Elder Brew- 
ster explained to him that, although their faith was 
positive and strong, they had no formal creed; that 
they recognized the spiritual fraternity of all who 
believed in the Christian faith; and that one of the 
tenets of their church, as laid down by John Robinson, 
was "that neither we or any of ours in the confession 
of their faith renounce or in one word contest with 
the Church of England." Lyt'ord's protestations had 
seemed sincere, and so much did he bewail the en- 
tanglements, which he said his Episcopal calling had 
brought upon him that, although not chosen pastor, 
he was at times allowed to preach. 

The complaints which the Particulars had sent to 
England in the Anne had now taken an ofiicial form, 
and a letter from the London stex^kholders was sent 



FIRST ALLOTMENT OF LAND 123 

over in the Charity, asking for an explanation. The 
instigator of these complaints in the colony, one 
Oldham, was a man of little education, but of some 
ability, and after the departure of the Anne he 
had assured the Particulars that no more supplies 
would be sent over. He was, therefore, much sur- 
prised when the Charity arrived with merchandise and 
cattle, and, believing that the London stockholders 
had decided not to make an issue with the colonists, 
he went to those in authority, and, confessing that 
*' he had done them wrong both by word and deed, and 
by writing to England," begged that the past be for- 
given. 

It was not long, however, before L}^ord and Old- 
ham were secretly conferring with those not in sym- 
pathy with the Plymouth church, and it soon became 
evident that a faction w^as forming against the 
government. Later, when the Charity was getting 
ready to sail, it was noticed that L^-ford spent much 
time writing letters home. As a year might elapse 
befoi'e anything written by Lv^ord could be contra- 
dicted, the council, suspicious that new slanders were 
being sent back, decided to have his letters examined. 
It was, therefore, planned that, when Winslow, who 
was to return in the Charity as the colony's agent, went 
aboard, Bradford should go to the vessel with him, 
and that these letters should then be opened. This 
was accordingly done, and, when the letters were 
examined, thev were found to be filled with malicious 



124 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

falsehoods for the "ruin and utter subversion of the 
colony," most of them being written by L\^ord, al- 
though Oldham, who was a poor pjnman, sent two or 
three. From these letters it was seen that L}^ord 
and Oldham were working against both the church 
and the colony, and had planned as soon as the ship 
sailed to form a new church. Copies were made of 
most of these letters, and, to prevent L^^ord and Old- 
ham denying the correspondence, some were kept, and 
in their stead copies were sent. It was also discovered 
that L\^ord had long been a spy; that before the 
Charity, which had brought him over, had sailed 
from England, he had opened two letters found in the 
cabin — one a letter which Wins low had written to 
Robinson and one which a friend had written to 
Brewster. 

Bradford's errand to the Charity being surmised 
by the conspirators, they expected to be called to 
account as soon as he came ashore, but, when two 
weeks went by and nothing was said, they believed 
he had only gone aboard to say good-bye to his friend. 
Captain Peirce. Believing that they could now control 
a majority of the votes in a town meeting, Oldham 
accordingly brought things to a crisis by refusing to go 
on sentry duty. Drawing a knife, he called Standish 
a "beo^fifarlv rascal," and durino- the commotion, when 
told by Bradford to be more orderly, called them all 
traitors. For this and " other foul language" he was put 
under arrest. He had expected a rescue by his friends. 



FIRST ALLOTMENT OF LAND 125 

but, no demonstration being made in his behalf, he 
submitted to imprisonment. As the plan for an 
open revolt had failed, the faction now schemed to 
meet some Sunday, and to have Lyford hold services 
according to the form of worship of the Church of 
England. During the summer this was done, Lyford 
at the service taking special pains to be offensive to 
the religion of the colony. 

We know that the leaders at once called a town 
meeting, believing the time had now come to confront 
L>^ord and Oldham with the intercepted letters. 
This meeting was held at sundown in the fort -church 
on the hill. We can easily picture it — the low beams 
of the ceiling giving to the interior of the church the 
appearance of the hold of a ship; Bradford and the 
council on a platform at the end of the hall ; Standish 
with some of his men under arms, ready for any emer- 
gency; the room overcrowded with colonists having 
their guns beside them — all much excited over what 
the outcome was to be, as none knew which party 
was in the majority. Then came the restrained 
excitement when the meeting was called to order; 
the silence broken only by the tread of the sentinel on 
the roof and the whispered conversation of the women 
and children anxiously waiting outside the church. 

We know that Bradford now charged Lyford and 
Oldham with secretly plotting to overthrow the govern- 
ment; that Lyford, believing Bradford would be 
unable to produce any definite proofs, assumed as- 



FIRST ALLOTMENT OF LAND 127 

tonishment at being suspected of collusion, and de- 
clared that he knew nothing of the colony's English 
enemies or their plans. ^Ye know that some of Lyford's 
letters were now read; that some showed that he had 
advised those in England to prevent Robinson and 
the others at Leyden joining the colony; that others 
charged mismanagement; that still others urged the 
London stockliolders to send over enough new colonists 
to outnumber the present settlers. We know that 
Bradford now reminded Lyford of his request to be 
made a member of their church, and that, when he 
and his family were being supported at the expense 
of the colony, he had been plotting its ruin. During 
the silence which followed, Lyford, as he stood there 
convicted of treachery, knavery, and hypocrisy, was 
then asked to explain his actions, but was speechless. 
Finally, giving way to tears, he confessed the wrong 
he had done, and begged forgiveness. 

We know that Oldham, who had watched the 
humiliation of this university-trained divine, took a 
different course. Determined to try immediate con- 
clusions with the government, he denounced the right 
of Bradford to open his letters, and, boldly asking those 
of courage to join him, then and there demanded a 
change in the government. But his friends now de- 
serted him, and, as he stood there alone, no voice was 
raised in his favor. Now that the crisis was passed, 
Lyford was asked if those in authority were justified 
in opening the suspected letters, and, no answer being 



12S OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

made, a letter was read which con\'icted liim of 
opening the letters of Winslow and Brewster. Then 
the letter was read in which Lyford had said that the 
Pilgrims would have none but Separatists in PhTQOuth. 
and Bradford, denouncing this as *'a false calumnia- 
tion/' called the attention of all to the fact that there 
were already among them many not Separatists, and 
that the colony desired to have others there hke them. 
It was now voted that Oldham should leave the colony 
at once; that his family should be allowed to remain 
until he could make a home for them elsewhere; and 
that L\iord should leave at the end of six months. 

Thus the most important meeting ever held in the 
Plymouth colony ended. It had been a crucial test 
of the strength of the government. ^Yith rare common 
sense Bradford had used, to the best advantage and 
at the ri£:ht moment, facts which had brou£:ht to his 
support a powerful faction that had come there opposed 
to the government. Although he knew nothing of 
poHtics, he had shown that special gift of meeting 
emerc^encies as they arise and that political shrewdness 
which we caU statesmanship — quahties which would 
have classed him with trained diplomats. 

Soon after this shaking up of the colony, the Little 
James, having proved an unlucky vessel, was sent 
back to England. AYlien her crew, who had shipped 
on shares, tirst arrived at Pl\Tnouth. they had been 
kept from deserting only by Bradford agreeing to pay 
them rej;:ular waives. Liiter. when returnini: from a 



FIRST ALLOTMENT OF LAND 129 

trading trip around the Cape, her main-mast broke 
during a storm as she was saihng into Plymouth Har- 
bor, and she barely escaped being wrecked on Brown's 
Island Shoals. Afterwards, when she was sent on a 
fishing trip to the Maine coast, she struck a rock and 
sank, the colonists only being able to raise her, four 
months later, by chartering some of the vessels of the 
fishing fleet. As this expense and the cost of necessary 
repairs had used up the beaver skins set aside for the 
London stockholders, the colonists decided to send her 
back to England. 

In September, a few days before the Little James 
sailed, one of the colonists who was going back in her 
handed to Governor Bradford a letter that Lyford had 
secretly asked him to take with him. This letter upon 
being opened showed the utter depravity of the man. 
Only a short time before he had, at a church meeting, 
publicly made a confession of his sins with tears larger 
than before, and it had been voted that he shoidd be 
allowed to remain in the colony. In the letter now 
written he assured the already discontented stockholders 
that the colonists were untruthful in their statements, 
that they were working for their own ad^'antage at the 
expense of the stockliolders, and "that ye church, as 
they called themselves though ye smallest member in 
the Colony, deprived the majority of the means of salva- 
tion and poor souls were complaining of it with tears 
to him." Concerning his former letters he wrote, "I 
suppose my letters or at least copies of them are come 



130 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

to your hands, . . . and I pray you take notice of this 
that I have written nothing but what is certainly true." 
As these letters were the ones for which he had so 
tearfully begged forgiveness, there was now no longer 
any thought of permitting him to remain permanently 
in the colony, although on account of his wife and chil- 
dren he was allowed to stay through the winter. In the 
spring he joined Oldham at Hull, where a few straggling 
settlers from the Weymouth colony were located, Roger 
Conant, one of the most respected of the Plymouth 
colonists, and a few others going with him. The next 
year Lyford went with Conant to where Gloucester 
now is, then a small fishing station and trading post 
established in 1623 by some merchants of the shire- 
town of Dorset, England. Later, with the abandon- 
ment of this settlement, Lyford, Conant, and some 
of the other Gloucester settlers went to Naumkeag, the 
site of the present Salem, and here Lyford remained 
until 1629, when he accepted a call from a Virginia 
parish where he lived until his death. 

The year had been a crucial one for the leaders of the 
colony, as the year before had been the critical one of 
the colony's existence. Before the year ended, how- 
ever, there was among the colonists, both in church and 
in civil affairs, harmonious action which long continued. 
Contrary to what has been generally understood, the 
dismissal of Lyford had not been because the colonists 
were opposed to Episcopacy, but because they feared 
that the object of the new-comers, of whom Lyford was 



FIRST ALLOTMENT OF LAND 131 

a ringleader, was a desire for ecclesiastical absorption 
rather than religious equality. Past experience had 
made them believe that the introduction of the national 
Church religion at this time would cost them their 
religious liberty. With an iron will and heavy hand 
men in England were being driven into conformity, 
and these pioneers felt that the freedom for which they 
had sacrificed so much would be lost if the Episcopal 
system, with the power of the government to enforce 
it, should at this time be introduced among them. 
During this year a few of the colonists returned to 
England, but as others had joined them, there were still 
about one hundred and eighty persons in the settle- 
ment. Many among them were not Separatists, and 
the church, still feeling its way along, had not yet 
adopted any creed. Their fellow -churchmen in Ley- 
den were now accustomed to invite to their communion 
Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Calvinists, and Robin- 
son had often said that he honored the clergy of the 
Church of England. If, therefore, a better man and 
more worthy Churchman had been sent over in Ly ford's 
place, it is quite probable, as the church was still with- 
out a minister, tl^t_ Congregationalism would have 
slowly yielded, and for a time at least the colony would 
have adopted the Episcopal form of worship, which for 
three centuries had been the religion of the English 
race. 



CHAPTER IX 



THE COLONY ABANDONED BY THE LONDON 
STOCKHOLDERS 

1625 

A fleet of not less than fifty vessels now annually 
traded along the New England coast, and the appear- 
ance of a vessel in Plymouth 
Harbor was a matter of such 
ordinary occurrence that it 
had ceased to excite surprise. 
In March, 1625, Oldham, in 
defiance of his sentence, had 
sailed into the harbor with 
some of his fellow-colonists 
of Hull, and, coming ashore, 
had used such abusive lan- 
guage that he was put under 
CHARLES I. arrest. In the afternoon he 

was marched to his boat between two rows of sol- 
diers who were ordered, as he passed, "to thump 
him in the rear with the butts of their muskets," 
and he was told, as his boat left shore, "to goe 
and mende his manners." So thoroughly had the 
colony been wrought up ov^er the "mad fury" of Old- 
ham that they had failed to notice the arrival of the ship 
Jacob, and, while Oldham was running the gauntlet, 
Winslow and Captain Peirce, formerly of the Charity, 
came ashore. 




THE COLONY ABANDONED 133 

From Winslow the colonists now learned that the 
London stockholders had practically abandoned the 
enterprise, and that, at the termination of the contract 
in 1627, the assets of the colony would be used to pay 
the outstanding indebtedness, now amounting to over 
fourteen hundred pounds. From the Puritan faction 
among the stockholders, Winslow had brought with 
him a letter saying that they had come to this conclu- 
sion because they believed the Pilgrims were Brownists, 
and that they, being Puritans, would be sinning against 
God in building up such a people, but that, if they were 
given a voice in the local self-government, they would 
again co-operate. Others among these stockholders 
had publicly said that they would refuse to allow Robin- 
son or any of the Ley den church to join the colony with- 
out written promises to conform to the doctrine of the 
Church of England. Some of the stockholders, how- 
ever, still friendly to the colonists, wrote that these 
religious objections were merely a subterfuge, and that 
the enterprise had been given up because there were no 
funds to carry it on. 

This withdrawal of the London stockholders was a 
serious blow to the colony. Charles I. was now king, 
and Cushman, who had written the colonists that there 
were mysterious threats of Parliamentary proceedings 
against them, now advised them to take up the outstand- 
ing indebtedness to use as an offset against whatever 
claims the English stockholders might have against the 
assets of the colony. This he specially urged, fearing 



134 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

the colonists would not build fences and set out fruit- 
trees if, at the termination of the contract, the property 
was to be taken from them to pay the debts of the 
colony. 

In the Jacob some of these stockholders had sent 
over, on their private account, a stock of cloth, hose, 
shoes, and leather, some trading goods and four young 
cattle, and, when she left on a fishing trip to Cape Ann, 
Standish and some of the colonists went in her to look 
after their property in Gloucester Harbor. Here they 
found that some of the unfriendly London stockholders 
had sent over one Captain Hewes, who had taken pos- 
session of the fishing stage, and, when he refused to 
give it up, the impetuous Standish at once prepared to 
seize it. Hewes in the mean time had placed his men 
with loaded muskets upon the stage behind a barri- 
cade of barrels, and it was only through the interces- 
sion, of Captain Peirce and Roger Conant, whom 
the Dorsetshire men had made the manager of their 
Gloucester trading post, that bloodshed was avoided 
by all agreeing to build together another stage. 

Soon after this episode the Dorsetshire settlement 
was given up, partly because the Plymouth colonists 
claimed to own the land, but principally because it had 
not proved a successful venture financially, Conant and 
a few of the settlers, left to shift for themselves, now 
starting the settlement at Naumkeag. In the fall, on 
the return of the Little James and a larger vessel 
that had come over in the spring on a fishing trip to 



THE COLONY ABANDONED 135 

Cape Cod, Standish was sent back to interest, if pos- 
sible, some English merchants in the enterprise. 

During this year many of the Weymouth settlers, 
who had become dissatisfied with their locality on ac- 
count of its inaccessible harbor and the lack of water 
communication with the interior, left the settlement — 
among them being Thomas Walford, a blacksmith who 
built an "English palisaded and thatched house " at the 
mouth of the Charles River where Charlestown now is; 
William Blackstone, a Puritan minister and an eccentric 
book recluse, who located a mile up the river on the 
west slope of what is now Beacon Hill, Boston; and 
Samuel Maverick, a stanch Churchman, who estab- 
lished a trading post and built a sort of fort on Noddle's 
Island, now East Boston. 

This same year a settlement was started at Nan- 
tasket, and another at Wollaston, now a part of Quincy. 
This Wollaston settlement was a business venture of 
one Captain Wollaston, who brought over with him 
as partners three or four men not without means and 
some thirty or forty indented servants, or persons who 
sold their service for a term of years. One of these 
partners, Thomas Morton — probably one of Weston's 
settlers at Weymouth in 1623 — by his glowing de- 
scription of the place had persuaded Wollaston to 
make the venture. Finding the Weymouth planta- 
tion occupied, they had selected as the site of their 
plantation a place two miles away, where Wollaston 
now is. This place had already been cleared of 



136 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

trees by the Indians, and that summer they laid out 
their phmtation and erected their buildings. In the 
fall, Captain Wollaston, becomino- satisfied that there 
was little profit in tlie enterprise, took most of the ser- 
vants with him to the more congenial climate of Vir- 
ginia, the ten left behind being put in the charge of 
one Fletcher, against whom ^lorton soon excited a 
mutiny which resulted in Fletcher's expulsion from 
the colony. lender ^forton the name of the place was 
now changed from Wollaston to Merry Mount, and, 
according to his own accounts, he and his followers 
led a roystering, drunken life, exchanging spirits, 
arms, and anmiunition with the Indians for beaver 
skins. 

As the Council for New England had for some time 
past been "a dead carcass," as Gorges expressed it, 
the bold idea was conceived of dividing the com- 
pany's grant among its different members and giving 
them power to convey land to settlers. Under this 
irregidar proceeding Lord Shefheld had already con- 
veyed to Cushman and Winslow the five hundred acres 
that the Plymouth colony held at Cape Ann, and, as 
other grants had been made by the diflVrent members 
of the Council, many new settlers arrived in ]\Iassa- 
chusetts Bay and vicinity in 16''24 and lO'^o, most of 
these being Puritans who had little sympathy with the 
Plvmouth Cono:reo;ationalists, whom thev still called 
Brownists. With these people the Plymouth colonists 
had business relations, but nothino' else in common. 



THE COLONY ABANDONED 



137 



as the Plymouth colonists' whole time was occupied in 
fishing, in traffic with the Indians, in the manufacture of 
lumber, in attending to their fish-drying and fur-huying 
station at Cape Ann, in making trading trips "on the 
coast to the eastward," and in the cultivation of corn 
and tobacco, which required much labor on account 
of the unproductiveness of the soil. 




OLDHAM PUT UNUEK AKKKST 



CHAPTER X 



FUR-TRADING ALONG THE MAINE COAST 



1026 

In April, 1626, Standish returned from England. 
He had arrived there at a most unfortunate time, as the 

Council for New England, 
which he had tried to inter- 
est in the colony, were too 
much disturbed over the 
tyranny of the new king, 
Charles I., to be willing to 
enter into any further ven- 
tures. Moreover, London 
was then suffering from an 
unusual epidemic of small- 
pox, so that practically no 
business was being carried 
on in the city. After five 
months of fruitless effort 
Standish borrowed one hun- 
dred and fifty pounds at fifty per cent, interest. 
With this he purchased a stock of goods for the colony, 
and returned home on one of the Maine fishing fleet. 

Upon his arrival the colonists now learned of the death 
of Robert Cushman, who had expected to join the colony 
the year before, but had remained to straighten out, 
if possible, their aft'airs, and who, as far as their English 




THE ROBINSON TABLET AT 
LEYDEN 



FUR-TRADING 139 

interests were concerned, "was their right hand." 
Standish also brought the news of the death of John 
Robinson, of whom his brother-in-law, Roger White, 
wrote to the colonists, " If either prayers, tears or means 
would have saved his life, he had not gone hence." 
The Puritan faction had long thwarted him, and had 
kept him in such a state of anxiety and grief that he 
had been unable to withstand even a moderate attack of 
disease, and had died as truly a martyr as had Barrowe, 
Greenwood, or Penry. Of him Bradford wrote, "His 
and their adversaries had been long and continually 
plotting how they might hinder his coming hither, but 
ye Lord had appointed a better place." 

So great was Robinson's modesty that he charged his 
followers to follow him no further than they found that 
he followed Christ, and to hold themselves ready to re- 
ceive new truths from others as willingly as they ac- 
cepted them from him. His progressive and liberal 
theology had reached beyond rigid Separatism and had 
touched on Unitarian ism. As his views softened with 
time, instead of regarding as un-Christ-like his parent 
church, the Church of England, he was accustomed to 
invite to communion all who professed Christianity, 
and his followers, who had not unfrequently been given 
the offensive name of Brownists had begun to be known 
as Independents. Few people in that age of bigotry 
appreciated the broadness of his character, the depth 
of his learning, his refinement, and his tender suscep- 
tibility to humanity, but he is now known to have been 



140 OUR ri A' MOUTH FOREFATHERS 

a man o( cxivdowWuiwy liberality, aiul it was owiiii^ to 
his inspiration that the rili;"rini Fathers grow into the 
rigidly npright nion we so niiieh reverenee. 

As Standish had been nnable to interest others in the 
eolony. the Pilgrims now fonnd themselves left to their 
own resonrees. Fishing had proved nnprohtable. 
The growing of eorn, however, haii beeome a sueeessful 
ventnre, as they fonnd a ready sale for what they them- 
selves d'\d not ret|nire. Nevertheless, this did not give 
them snthi'ient protit to meet the large debt already 
eontracted. Since their most profitable bnsincss was 
trading with the Indians, they now decided to engage 
in it npon a more extensive scale, and, in order to carry 
it on to the best advantage and also tt) prevent local 
competition, they decided to pnt it into the hands of the 
shrewd traders of the coKniy. 

Soon after this wonl was sent to the colony that the 
English trading post at ^Fonhegan was to be given up 
and that the trading stock was for sale. This stock 
Bradford, Winslow, and David Thompson, the Scotch- 
man living on the Piscataqna River, pnrchased for eight 
hnndred ponnds. Bradford and AVinslow also pur- 
chased the goats on the island. AVhile there, they heard 
that a French vessel had been wrecked at Sagadahoc, 
Init that the cargo had been saved. This cargo, valued 
at two hundred pounds, Bradford and Winslow paid for 
with such beaver skins and marketable barter as they 
had taken with them in the shallop, excepting a small 
balance for which they gave their note to fall due the 
followino; vear. • 



FUli-TUAJJlXG 



141 



The c()inrn(ir((t of tlio rolony \v;i.s now nif>idly in- 
creasing, and tfiat summer one; of ffi(.' colonists, a house 
carpenter, ]en^th(;n(;(l into a s(;a-^oin^ eraf't on(i of the 
^hallof)s, so tfiat they were now ahle to cjo a lar<^e 
amount of trading on tlur KcnnctK-e Uiver. So profit- 
abl(! was this trading that in t[ie fall Alh-rton was s(;nt 
to England to arran^^e for the purehasf; of all the shares 
of the London stockholders, the eolorn'sts hoping in 
this way to cut the knot whicfi they could not untie. 







TilOLOiirpJ Of' OLU LSOL.ASD 



CHAPTER XI 



TRADING POST ON BUZZARDS BAY 

1627 

In the winter of 1626-27 the Sparrowhawk on its 
way from England to Virginia with passengers and 

merchandise had, 
during a storm 
while she was on the 
southern side of the 
Cape, pounded over 
a bar into the Bay 
I L Xi'^^^V V of Orleans. The 

-V""*^?/ ^-^i \ A passengers, seeing 

Indians approaching 
in canoes, had made 
preparations for an 
attack, when the In- 
dians asked in 
English if they were 
*' the Governor of 
Plymouth's men.** 
The captain of the 
Sparrowhawk, now 
learning where he was, sent two of the ship*s crew 
to the Plymouth colony for oakum, pitch, and spikes 
with which to repair the vessel. These Bradford 
himself took to them in a shallop, sailing along the 
shore to Namsketet Creek, and from there walking the 




OFF CAPE COD 



TRADING POST, BUZZARDS BAY 143 

two miles across the Cape to Orleans Harbor. A few 
days after Bradford had returned home, and while the 
repairs were being made, the vessel was blown ashore 
during another storm, and hopelessly wrecked. This 
resulted in the passengers coming to Plymouth, where 
they remained until summer, when they were taken to 
Virginia in two vessels which had been sent for them. 

To still further increase their trading facilities, the 
colonists this year erected a palisaded trading house on 
Monumet River, near where it empties into Buzzards 
Bay. This post, which was twenty miles across country 
from Plymouth, could also be easily reached by water, 
as from the Plymouth side of the Cape there was only 
a four miles' carry from the head of navigation on the 
Scusset River to the head of navigation on the Monu- 
met River on the Buzzards Bay side. The colonists 
were thus able not only to avoid sailing around the 
Cape, where there were many dangerous shoals, but 
were also able to reach the southern side of the Cape in 
a much shorter time. At this fort they kept two men 
who planted corn, raised swine, and in a pinnace 
traded with the Indians on that side of Cape Cod. 
This venture proved to be a profitable one, and for 
many years they carried their goods over this route, — 
a route now the proposed location of the Cape Cod 
Ship Canal. 

The Dutch settlers at Manhattan up to this time 
had never put themselves in communication with the 
Plymouth colony, fearing competition in their prof- 



144 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

itable trading with the Narragansetts and the Indians 
along Long Island Sound. In March, 1627, however, 
soon after the Monumet trading house was built. 
Governor Bradford received from Isaac de Rassieres, 
the secretary of the West India Company at Manhattan, 
a letter stating that the company Avould like to carry 
on with the Plymouth colonists trade for their mutual 
benefit. In his reply to this letter Bradford expressed 
the willingness of the colony to trade with the people 
of Manhattan, but cautioned them against settling 
within the territory of the Council for New England 
or trading with the Narragansetts and the Indians 
around Buzzards Bay, "which is as it were at our 
doors." 

That same spring Allerton returned with the fishing 
fleet, having borrowed two hundred pounds at thirty 
per cent, interest with which he purchased a stock 
of goods. He had also obtained from the London 
stockholders an agreement to sell their interest in the 
colony for eighteen hundred pounds, two hundred 
pounds to be paid each year. At a town meeting, 
duly called, the colonists decided to accept this offer. 
As the colony itself w^as a legal nonentity, its govern- 
ment being based upon the consent of those governed 
and its only corporate existence the patent of land 
taken out in the name of John Pierce, it was decided 
that during six years, as far as any stockholders' right 
went, Bradford, Brewster, Standish, Winslow, xHlerton, 
Howland, Alden, and Prence should act as the ow^ners 



TRADING POST, BUZZARDS BAY 145 

of the property. At this town meeting it was also 
voted, if Bradford and his associates, who were to be 
known as Undertakers, would guarantee the neces- 
sary payments to the English stockholders, would 
pay the debts of the colony, would bring over from 
Leyden the remainder of the church, and would each 
year import to the value of fifty pounds hose and 
shoes which they would exchange with the colonists 
for corn at the rate of six shillings per bushel, then, in 
return for doing this, every colonist should pay to them, 
for each of the six years, three bushels of corn or six 
pounds of tobacco, and that they should have all the 
trading stock on hand, the trade of the colony, and the 
use of all the boats. 

This the Undertakers agreed to do, and, in order 
that each settler might personally have an interest 
in the property of the colony, it was also voted that 
each head of a family and all self-supporting single 
men could become shareholders by binding them- 
selves to pay their proportion of such annual indebted- 
ness as the profits in trade did not defray, and that 
each married man could in addition take one share 
for his wife and one for each of his children. In this 
reorganization, in which one hundred and fifty-six 
colonists joined, there was no sectarian exclusiveness, 
so often attributed to the Pilgrims. Although at the 
meeting it was proposed to exclude all those who did 
not accept the doctrines of Congregationalism, the plan 
was rejected, and every one, whether church members, 



146 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

non-church members, or anti-church members, was 
allowed to be a shareholder and to have a vote in the 
government of the colony. 

In the agreement wuth the Undertakei's the cattle, 
goats, swine, and their offspring had not been included, 
and at a town meeting held June first it was voted to 
distribute these among the shareholders. This was 
done by dividing the shareholders into twelve groups 
and allotting the animals to the different groups, it 
beincr agreed that those who received the animals 
should be responsible for any loss attributed to care- 
lessness in the care of them, and that in ten years the 
animals with half their increase should be returned. 

That fall Allerton went to England to notify the 
London stockholders that their offer was accepted, and 
to arrange the details of the purchase. He was also 
commissioned to secure a patent for a trading post 
on the Kennebec, as the settlers on the Piscataqua and 
in neighboring places were threatening to procure a 
grant wliich would exclude the Plymouth colonists 
from any share of the traffic there. In addition to this 
he was, if possible, to interest in the new company 
some of the former stockliolders, and to make the 
necessary arrangements for bringing over those still 
in Ley den. 

In August Bradford had received a reply to his 
letter to De Rassieres, in which De Rassieres had 
claimed that the Dutch had a right to trade within the 
limits of the Plymouth grant. To this Bradford had 



TRADING POST, BUZZARDS BAY 147 

replied with friendly civility, and, after demurring 

against "the over high titles more than belong to us 

or is meet for us to receive" — titles which De Rassieres 

had used in his letter — he gave l)e Rassieres clearly 

to understand that Plymouth would expel by force, if 

need be, any one who should enter its territory to 

interfere with their trade. He further suggested that 

some of the Dutch authorities visit Plymouth to make 

an ao:reement for their " mutual commerce." The re- 
ft 

suit of this correspondence was that on October fourth 
word reached Bradford that De Rassieres had ar- 
rived on his vessel off the trading house on the Monu- 
met River, and wished a boat sent up the Scusset to 
take him to Plymouth. That day, "accompanied 
with a noise of trumpeters and some other attendants," 
De Rassieres arrived at the colony, where he remained 
several days. During this visit an agreement was 
made by which trade relations were established be- 
tween the two colonies which lasted many years. 

It was at this time that the colonists learned from 
De Rassieres how successful the Dutch had been 
in trading wampum for furs and hides. These wam- 
pum beads, which were highly prized by the Indians, 
Avere an eighth of an inch in diameter and a quarter 
of an inch long. In color they were both white and 
purple, and, as only a small part of the shells from 
which they were made was purple, beads of that color 
were the most valuable. As it required much labor 
to give them proper shape, to drill holes through the 



14S OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

centre, and to round and polish them, they were not a 
cheap article with a fictitious value. As the shells 
from which they were made were only found along the 
shore as far east as Xarragansett Bay, the demand for 
them was stimulated by the difiiculty which the Indians 
of the interior had in obtaining them. Therefore, a 
brisk trade had always been carried on between the 
coast Indians and the tribes of the interior, furs and 
hides being brought to the coast to clothe the denser 
population there, and wampum beads carried back 
in exchange. 

From prehistoric times these beads had been used 
by all Indians for decorations, the number of strings 
showing the social position and wealth of the wearer, 
some being worn around the neck, others as bracelets, 
and others in decorating their clothing and moccasins. 
In all aifairs of State the chiefs and sachems wore 
wampum belts either around their waists or over their 
shoulders, like scarfs. In negotiations with other 
tribes these chiefs and sachems always took with them 
both wampum belts and the calumet, or pipe of peace, 
and their orators corroborated ever\' important state- 
ment by laying down one or more belts. Promises 
were not considered binding without one, and they 
were uniAersally used in all ceremonies. Friendships 
were cemented by them, alliances confirmed, and 
treaties sealed. 

Up to the time of the arrival of the white settlers, 
these beads had been used only in barter, as the primi- 



TRADING POST, BUZZARDS BAY 149 

live life of the Indians, whose Hmited wants were 
suppHed by direct personal effort, did not demand a 
circulating medium, like money. But, as civilization 
means an interchange of services, some basis of exchange 
was needed with which easily to regulate payments 
for mutual benefits. 

The Dutch with their shrewd commercial instincts 
had been quick to see the advantage of having at their 
very doors a commodity which they could easily obtain 
in exchange for knives, scissors, and hatchets, and after- 
wards sell in the interior at large profits for furs and 
hides. De Rassieres had brought with him to Plymouth 
fifty pounds of this wampum, and the colonists had 
reluctantly purchased it after being convinced that 
they could make large profits with it. As an experi- 
ment, they took some of it on a trading trip to the 
Kennebec, and, "when the inland Indians came to 
know it, they could scarce procure enough for many 
year together," in this way wampum shortly becoming 
the leading article of trafiic with all the Maine Indians. 

Up to this time, the colonists had used, in barter 
between themselves, corn, wheat, peas, poultry, butter, 
and cheese, but now, owing to the profits made with 
wampum, this at once became the circulating medium, 
the unit of exchange being a string of beads reaching 
from the elbow to the end of the little finger — one purple 
bead being equal in value to two white ones. Not, 
however, until two years later did the Cape Cod Indians 
appreciate the value of wampum as money, as these 



150 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

shells were too near at hand to have with them more 
than their intrinsic value. When, however, they 
learned how highly the white man valued these beads, 
they began hoarding them, for they had little ^v eight 
and were neither bulky nor unwieldy, and, Avhen the 
strings were long enough, they purchased with them 
merchandise. They often, too, in spite of the laws to 
the contrary, purchased fire-arms from the French and 
Dutch trading vessels, these men, in turn, selling the 
beads at the different settlements. 

It was not long before the Plymouth colonists were 
using these beads to such an extent that in a few years 
they were able to liquidate their entire indebtedness 
with the London stockholders, wliich put them upon 
such a firm financial basis that the Dutch feared 
"they would be obliged to eat oats out of English 
hands." No legal tender scheme of later days was 
ever bolder in its conception or more successfully 
carried out than this use by them of wampum as money. 
The farmer was glad to receive it for his produce, the 
merchant for his wares, and the laborer for his wages. 
To the French at the north large quantities were also 
sold, as these people now sought to share in the profits 
which this trade brought. 

Soon wampum was circulating as money as much 
in the forest as in the settlements, and it was not long 
before wampum beads were made a legal tender by 
law. In later years the enormous demand for them 
brought into the market stone beads as well as rough 



TRADING POST, BUZZARDS BAY 151 

unstrung specimens of the genuine article. Then the 
Dutch began to manufacture beads with steel drills 
and polishing lathes, and the French to substitute 
porcelain for the shells. Finally, this extensive manu- 
facture, together with the domestic coinage of silver, 
drove wampum beads from circulation, and glass beads 
took their place for Indian decorations. 



^ISSiSflSi^^ 



liiiiiiBfiiiiiiiii^^ 



WAMPUM BELT 




CHAPTER XTI 

THE SECOND ALLOTMEXT OF L-\XD 

lo2S 

The Ph-moiith settlement had now become a pros- 
perous eolony. Prohtable trading was carried on 
with the Indians, the hind 
was prvxiueing more than 
enough for their needs, and 
vessels were frtxjuently arriv- 
ing with necess;\r\- supplies. 
Most of the families had 
separate houses, but, as these 
houses were so close together 
that tliere was constant dan- 
ger of a conflagration, it wi\s 

.OHx Exx^icorr ^"^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^'^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ 

thatch on all the ixx^fs be 
changeii to boanis or paling, shingles not then 
being used. (Hher parts of Massiichusetts Bay 
were settling rapidly. Few now colonists, however. 
had arrived at Phmouth. pjirtly Ixvause the ehuix^h 
people in England had use<.l every means to preveiit 
those in Lcydon coming over, and p;\rtly because the 
colonists feareil that, if others joined them, they might 
find themselves outnumbereil, and thus have taken 
from them the libortv- which had cost them so dear. 




SECOND ALLOTMENT OF LAND 153 

The acre allotment made in l(v2t had now oxpiivd, 
and under the reorganization made in 1(>'27 one hun- 
dred and lifty-six colonists were now ownei*s of the 
grant from the Council for Now England. Along 
rivmouth Harbor between the Eel Kiver, tAvo miles 
to the south of the village, and the Jones River, four 
miles to the north, there was a stretch of land which in 
former years had been more or less cleared by the 
Indians. In order to aJlow each stockliolder an oppor- 
tunity to develop as nuich land as he was able, it was 
voted on January thirteenth, UJ^^S, to allot this land to 
the one hundred and lifty-six shareholders in addition 
to the acre each already held. To do this, the tract 
was divided into twenty-acre lots, the poorer portions 
being held in common, and the moadoAVs retained in 
order that mowing privileges might be yearly assigned 
to those having cattle. Each of these one hundred 
anil fifty-six little farms was four acres deep, and had 
live acres on the bay. It was also voted that those 
whose farms were to be far from the village should 
have the privilege of planting their corn on the nearer 
land for four years, and that then for a corresponding 
time tlie owners of this land should have similar 
privileges on the further land. It was also voted 
that the shareholders should have the houses in which 
they lived; that those having the better ones should 
pay something to the others according to an appraisal, 
and that "ye Gove*^ &^ 4 or 5 of ye spetiall men amongst 
them should have their houses without any appraisal." 



154 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

At this time the free and easy habits of the settlers 
of MeiTv Mount had begun to scandahze the Puritan 
settlers along Massachusetts Bay, who were not slow 
in condemning what would now be considered innocent 
sports as "beastly practices." But, because these 
Merry Mount people were also often intoxicated, 
besides keeping in the settlement dissolute Indian 
squaws and selling to the men fire-arms contraiy- to the 
proclamations of King James in 16-2-2, it was felt that 
the settlement was a menace to the community', Brad- 
ford in his journal writing, ''Hitherto ye Indians of 
these parts had no pieces nor other arms but their 
bows and arrows nor for many years after, neither 
durst they scarce handle a gune so much were they 
affraid of them and ye ver}- sight of one, though out 
of kilter, was a terrour unto them." 

The Plymouth government \\ as now asked by the 
Puritan settlers of the Bay to put a stop to the scan- 
dalous way the people at Meny- Mount were H^-ing, 
and Bradford accordingly sent a letter to Morton, 
requesting him to better regulate his colony and to 
obev the king's proclamation concerning the sale of 
fire-arms. To this letter Morton rephed that he 
defied the settlers to molest him, and assured them 
that there would be bloodshed, should they attempt 
it. Upon receipt of this letter Brachord. in June, 
sent the Plymouth militia, under the command 
of Captain Standish, to subdue them. Upon their 
arrival thev found the settlers barricaded in Morton's 



SECOND ALLOTMENT OF LAND 155 

house, and Morton, after taunting Standish with a 
volley of abuse, led his men out against the men of 
"(.aptain Shrimp," as he called Standish. In the 
scrimmage which followed, Morton was taken prisoner 
and the others surrendered, the only shedding of blood 
being from the nose of a drunken Merry Mount settler 
which was scratched with the sword point of one of 
Standish's men. Soon after this Morton, under 
arrest, was sent to England in a vessel sailing from 
the Isles of Shoals. 

Durino: the summer Allerton returned from Ensf- 
land with the contract signed by the London stock- 
holders. While there, he had prevailed upon James 
Sherley, John Beauchamp, Joseph Andrews, and 
Timothy Hatherley — four of the stockholders — to be- 
come "Undertakers" with Bradford and his associates. 
He had also paid the first two hundred pounds on the 
bond and other debts amounting to five hundred 
pounds, the total indebtedness of the colony being 
now two thousand pounds. He had also been suc- 
cessful in getting a grant of land on the Kennebec 
River, where Augusta now is, and here the colonists 
at once built a fortified trading house. 

Without any authority from the colonists, Allerton 
had brought over witli him a young clergyman, named 
Rogers, to be the pastor of their church. Why he 
did this has always l^een a mystery, as the man was 
found to be insane, and the colonists were obliged 
to pay his passage back to England. That autumn, 



156 OVR PLYMOITH FOREFATHEKS 

at the request of the Enghsh partners, Allerton again 
returned to England as the agent of the colony, and, 
because fault had been found with his previous pur- 
chases, he now received instructions what goods to 
purchase and what arrangement to make about getting 
the Leyden people over. 

The success of the colony and the persistent adherence 
of the colonbts to their Separatist principles had not 
failed to have its effect upon the Puritans in England. 
All knew that the day of strife with the government 
was not far off, but none could foretell the outcome. 
Riots in churches, forcible demohtion of communion 
sets, surplices, and serN-ice books, were not uncommon 
^n all parts of the kingdom, and through the press 
there were frequent explosions of long-stifled con- 
victions and suppressed opinions. Many Puritans 
in England now beheved that what had been done 
at Plymouth by a few men of small means might be 
done on a larger scale by an association of the lead- 
inc: Puritans, who were now a numerous and powerful 
partv in England, rhiriug the agitation of tins ques- 
tion a few Puritans, '* being together in Lincolnshire, 
fell into discourse about New England and the plant- 
ing of the gospel there." The result of the discussicm 
was the formation of the Massachusetts Bay Company, 
which in March, 16^, obtaineti from the Council 
for New England a grant of that part of New England 
included bebveen three miles north of the Merrimac 
River and three miles south of the Charles. That 



SECOND ALLOTMENT OF LAND 157 

same fall there arrived at Conant's settlement at 
Xaiiinkeag sixty eiuigrants. the begiiiniiiii' ot* a great 
Puritan exodus from Kn^huul which was later vitally 
to ail'eet the IMyniouth eolony. 

The two great movements which made New England, 
therefore, had their beginnings in liineolnshire. The 
one in Gainsborongh resulted in the t'ornuiticMi of the 
Plymouth eolony: out of tlie stvond developed the 
settlements around "Massachusetts Bay. It was not, 
then, by accident that Boston in Lincolnshire gave its 
name to the largest city of New England, and that the 
earliest counties of Massachusetts were called ^liddle- 
sex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. Of the two emigra- 
tions, that o( the Pilgrim Fathers was pre-eminent in 
romance and personal heroism; but, so far as lasting 
results went, the other was far more important, for, if 
it had not occurred, it is not certain that the Pilgrim 
emigration, with its slow rate of increase, would liave 
been able to make the English language and English 
traditions permanent in the New World against the 
combined intiucncc o{ the French and Dutch settlers, 
who found powerful allies in their Indian co-con- 
spirators. 

Upon the arrival of these sixty emigrants at Naum- 
keag, in September, Conant and those already located 
there at first disputed the authority of these new people 
to govern the colony. All, however, soon became 
friends, and the name of the place was changed from 
Naumkeag to the Hebrew name Salem, or peace. 



15S OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

During the voyage over many of these emigrants 
had been made ill by eating provisions preserved in 
unwholesome salt, and, after landing, many had died 
from being poorly housed in the few buildings which 
Roger Conant and his colonists had erected. John 
Endicott, who had come over as deputy- governor of 
the colony, having learned from Conant of Doctor 
Fuller's skill as a physician, now sent a messenger to 
Plymouth, begging him to come to Salem to help them 
in their distress. AVliile at Salem, Fuller made clear 
to these Puritan emigrants what Separatism meant, 
and showed them that they had false ideas of the 
religion of the Pilgrims. This so impressed Endicott 
that he wrote to Bradford: "I rejoice much that I am 
by him [T'uller] satisfied touching your judgment of the 
outward form of God's worship. It is. as far as I can 
gather, no other than is warranted by the e\'idence of 
truth and the same which I have professed ever since 
the Lord in mercy revealed Himself unto me, being 
far from the common report that hath been spread of 
you touching that particular." 




■!:>GLXSH MORIONS 



CHAPTER XIII 

TRADING POST ON THE PENOBSCOT RIVER 

1629 

The Puritan emigTation of 1028, which was the 
beginning of the greatest attempt at colonization yet 
made by Englishmen, was 
brought about by ominous 
signs of civil war when the 
House of Parliament placed 
foremost among the nation's 
grievances Archbishop Laud's 
oppressive treatment of the 
Puritan party in the Church. 

When the Puritans real- 
ized that "it was evident 
that the church had no place 
left to fly into but the wil- archbishop laud 

derness and a shelter and abiding place could only be 
sought and retained beyond the seas," many became 
interested in a Puritan exodus to New England. These 
men were representative citizens, who desired to have 
in the New World all that was best in the life of the 
Old. Some were men of wealth; some had hioh social 
positions and influential connections; others were men 
with titles or holding prominent positions as clergy- 
men in the English Church. Determined to establish 
in New England something more than a mere trad- 




IdO our FLYMOLTH FORliTATHERS 

iiiil station liable at any time to be interfered withby 
the CTV>wn. the leaders in Maivh, 16^9. obtained frv»m 
King Charles a roval charter under the legal title of 
the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay 
in New England. This charter superseded all grants 
pn?viously made in the territory, and gave unprece- 
dented liberalitA- in self-government. 

The favorable reports of the country by Endicott. 
in his letters home, had already given impetus to the 
mo^'ement. Friends of those who had sailed the year 
before now joined the emigration, and that summer 
six small vessels, with four hundnxl and six emigrants, 
one huniheii and forty head of cattle, forty goats, and 
an abundant supply of clothing, arms, anmiunition 
and tools, saileil for Salem. 

The arrival of these people made Endicott the 
governor of a colony laiger than that of Plymouth, 
e^^?n after its growth of nearly nine vears. As the 
residt of Fidler's A*isit and influence, the sixty emigrants 
who had come over with Endicv^tt had already adopteil 
the church principles of the Plvmouth plantation, and 
these same principles the new arrivals also adopteil, 
with the single exception that chureh membership was 
made an essential pie-iequisite to citizenship. This 
was done as a safeguard ag;\inst the danger of a popu- 
lation groAving up aiv>iuid them which, with the aid 
of the government at home, might try to ciu-tail their 
religious liberties. 

Bv this sevx^nd exoilus ninetv uni\-exsitv- men had 



TRADING POST, PENOBSCOT RIVER 161 

been gained for New England — a fact which had much 
to do in developing the New England type of people. 
All these new arrivals claimed that they were loyal to 
the Established Church, and all emphatically denied 
being Separatists like the Plymouth Pilgrims, whom 
they still miscalled Brownists, one of the clergymen 
writing home, "We do not go to New England as 
Separatists from the Church of England, though we 
cannot but separate from the corruption in it." But, 
although they claimed they were heart and soul Church 
of England men and disavowed in the strongest terms the 
impression which had gone abroad, "that under color 
of planting a colony they intended to raise and erect a 
seminary of faction and separatism," they protested 
against the use of the Book of Common Prayer, the 
ceremonies connected with the ordinance of baptism, 
and allowing "scandalous persons" at the Lord's 
Supper. They had only separated, they said, from 
the corruption which had in recent years sprung up in 
the Church,, and, being now in a place where they had 
their liberty, they neither could nor would conform to 
ceremonies in which they did not believe. Of the 
three ministers who had come over with these second 
arrivals, one refused to worship in the new way, and 
settled in Charlestown. With the new arrivals there 
were also two settlers who attempted to conduct ser- 
vices according to the Book of Common Prayer, and 
these men were sent back to England. 

Thus within a year those who had come to Salem 



162 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

as members of the Church of England had prac- 
tically become Separatists, as they had adopted the 
doctrines of Plymouth in the two foundation princi- 
ples iip^^n which Septiratism was based, namely: 
that, to be members of the Christian Church, men must 
be Christians, and that, if they were Christians, they 
had within them the Spirit of God, which made them 
capable of worshipping in then* own way '* without being 
subjected to any government but of themselves.*' 
Hence the only ditTerence between these Puritans and 
the Plvmouth colonists was that the former retained 
in spirit the State Church principles, and that the 
latter did not. For the tirst time, therefore. Puritans 
who were not Separatists formed a Congregational 
Church, and, with Congregational churches the basis 
of civil society in both colonies, a republican form of 
government for the State was ine\-itable. 

Among the Salem emigrants of 16-29 there had come 
over a preacher, one Ralph Smith, concerning whom 
Matthew Cradock, the English governor of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay Company, had sent word to Endicott 
that he was suspected of being a Separatist, " and that 
unless he be conformable to oiu* government you suffer 
him not to remain within the limits of our grant.** As 
the Salem colonists were then denying the charge that 
thev were Separatists, there was talk of sending Smith 
back to England. This becoming known to him, he 
with his family left for Hull, where he lived " in a poore 
house that would neither keep him or his goods drie." 



TRADING POST, PENOBSCOT RIVER 103 

When a boat from Plymouth put in there, he asked 
to be taken with his family to the Plymouth colony, 
and, being- an ordained minister and able to administer 
the sacraments, he was made the pastor of the Plymouth 
church, Robinson long before this time having written 
Brewster that " I judge it not lawful for you, being a 
ruling elder as in Rom. xii. 7, 8 and in Tim. v. 17, 
opposed to elders that teach and labour in the word 
and doctrine to which the sacraments are annexed, to 
administer them nor convenient if it were lawful." 

In accordance with the instructions given Allerton, 
there arrived at Salem in August, in the May Flower 
now in command of Captain Peirce, thirty-five Leyden 
emigrants, who from here were taken in shallops to 
Plymouth. Later Allerton himself came over, bringing 
with him Morton whom the colonists the year before had 
sent to England under arrest. This action of Allerton 
the colonists resented as an impertinence, but, because 
he was Elder Brewster's son-in-law, Morton was al- 
lowed to remain as his clerk. In a short time, however, 
Morton went to his old settlement at Wollaston, where 
he was a second time arrested for misconduct, and 
again sent back to England. 

Among the goods that Allerton brought over there 
were many which he had been told not to purchase 
because they were not suitable for trading purposes. 
He had also mixed goods purchased on his own ac- 
count with those purchased for the colony. This he 
had done on his other trips, and, although it had then 



uu ouu rLYMOuru foukfathkus 

boon ovorlookod, ho luul on this trip rtvoivod dotinito 
instniotions what i^oods to buy. C^^n his arrival at Saloni 
he sold sonio of tho oolony's ixoods which ho had boon 
toKl not to puroha^o as his own, and turnod tho T\\<t 
ovor to tho ooU^ny as its puix^iaso. In addition to this 
triokorv tho colonists loarnevi that ho had arranged with 
Shorlov and tho thux" othor London *' l'ndortakoi*s " to 
cstabhsh a tradinix post on tho Ponobsoot Rivor. at 
Castino, and had pnt in charge there one Kdward 
Ashlov, well known in tho colony as a dissohito man. 

In tliis venture tho Plymouth colonists wore now 
asked to join, and, Ixvauso the new post would other- 
wise be a rival to the one already established on the 
Kennobtx\ they reluctantly agr^xxl to furnish Ashley 
with wan\pun\. corn, and trading supplies, and sent as 
his assistant a young man named Willet. who had re- 
cently arrived from l.eyden. Before long the colonists 
learned that Ashley was nMuitting to the English part- 
ners the large protits that wore Ixnng made, and the next 
year, when he was sent to England under arrest for 
selling gunpowder to the Indians, tho post was turnod 
over to Willot, who carried on a profitable business. 

AVith the close of the year, U>^^i), the colonists had not 
yet fathomed Allorton's cunning, and he was again 
sent to England at tho urgent request of Sherley, who 
had written that it was neix\<sary for Allerton to be 
there in order, on account of n\istakes nuulo in the 
boundaries of tlieir Konnoboi" grant, to have a change 
made in the wordini: of the irrant. 



CIIAPIKR XIV 



THE PURITAN SIOTl I.KMKN T AT 1K)ST()N 

1630 

Durinf!^ tliis year a new grant was obtained of the 
Plymouth territory which fixed both tlie l)oiin(hiries of 
that territory and of I he liind 
on the Kennebec, as the Pierce 
grant of HJ*^! had given no 
boundaries to tlie IMynionlh 
territory. This grant of 
U)29, which was made in fee 
simple to William Bradford, 
his heirs, associates, and 
assigns, was signed by the Karl 
of Warwick, then I^resident of 
the Council for New England, 
and is still known as the War- 
wick grant. 

In May, 1080, the Lion, in command of Caj>tain 
Pcirce, arrived at Charlestown with nion^ Ticyden 
emigrants, who from there were; taken in shallops to 
Plymouth. In this vessel Allerton also returned. As 
the Plymouth colonists had already heard of his mis- 
management of their affairs in England, some of the 
Undertakers now urged his dismissal from the em- 
ploy of the colony, but, as Sherley liad written that he 




JOHN WINl'IIKOl' 



166 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

ought to return on account of the negotiations already 
begun for a royal charter similar to the one granted 
the ^lassachusetts Bay colony, the Undertakers in 
a moment of weak amiability sent him back in the fall. 
They also sent AVinslow with him to investigate the 
charges made, and at the same time to act with liim 
as the colonists' agent in purchasing goods. 

This year John Billington. who had come over in 
the ^lay Flower, was charged with killing one John 
Newcomen, at whom he had fired for interfering with 
liis hunting. Of Billington and liis family Bradford 
wrote, "He and some of his had often been punished 
for miscariag before, being one of ye profanest families 
amongst them." In \6'2l Billington had refused to 
obey an order of Captain Standish, and because he 
made threats against him *' he was convented before the 
whole company" to have his feet and neck tied togetlier, 
and to remain in public view for several hours. Upon 
his conviction of murder, the colonists who had some 
doubt about their authority to act in such a case 
referred the matter to the Bay settlement whose au- 
thority under the Crown was above question, and they 
decided "that Billington ought to die and the land be 
punred of blood." This sentence was carried out at 
Plymouth in September. In November the Hand- 
maid arrived at Plymouth with sixty emigrants — prob- 
ably the last to join from the Leyden churL-h. 
The voyage over had been a rough one: both masts 
of the vessel had been carried awav, and duriuix the 



PURITAN SETTLEMENT AT BOSTON 167 

twelve weeks' passage from Southampton ten of the 
twenty-eight cows that had been shipped died. 

In England, for some time now, forced loans and 
illegal taxes had been imposed upon the people. Buck- 
ingham, the king's favorite, had been killed l)y an 
assassin, and Laud, now virtually primate, was asserting 
the divine right of kings, and assuming the whole power 
of the Church, Puritanism and free speech being his 
pet aversions and the special objects of his prosecution. 
Parliament was now dissolved. The king had an- 
nounced his intention of ruling without one; the Star 
Chamber and High Commission Courts had become the 
instruments of the government; and men were harassed 
for refusing conformity to what they considered super- 
fluous w^orship. 

In Auii'ust, 1()29, twelve men amono; the most emi- 
nent in the Puritan party had held a meeting in Cam- 
brido;e, Enoland, and tliere resolved to lead another 
emigration to New England, if under the charter of the 
Massachusetts Bay colony the government of the colony 
could be transferred to the colony itself. Their inves- 
tigations proving satisfactory, it was arranged that such 
officers of the company who did not care to take an 
active part in a new Puritan emigration should resign, 
and that their places should be filled by other Puritan 
leaders. What had been a vision of a free state and a 
free government now seemed a possibility. Without 
arousing the ever-watchful jealousy of Laud, a resolu- 
tion was passed by the Massachusetts Bay Company 



168 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

which meant more than it seemed on its face, it being 
voted, at the suggestion of Matthew Cradock, the Lon- 
don governor, " that for the purpose of including persons 
of character, abihty and means to settle in the new col- 
ony that the company transfer the government of the 
plantation to those that shall inhabit it, and not control 
the same in subordination to the company as it now is.'* 
The plan wliich these men outlined was far-reaching 
in its results, being a measure for self-government and 
independence which foreshadowed that spirit of impa- 
tience against foreign control, and which, at a later day, 
pervaded not only the settlements of Massachusetts 
Bay, but the whole x\merican continent. The practical 
result of the vote was that the entire control of the 
affairs of the company was placed in the hands of the 
ten members who were to settle in the colony, John 
Winthrop " by election of hands being chosen governor 
for the ensuing year to begin on the present day." 

The following year, in February and March of 1630, 
two vessels with the first of these Puritans sailed for 
Salem, followed two months later by four other vessels 
which carried Winthrop and his associates in office, 
Winthrop on landing assuming office as governor. 
This was the beginning of a general emigration of 
English Puritans to New England, and before Christ- 
mas seventeen vessels had sailed with more than a 
thousand passengers. On their arrival these people 
found that the reports sent home had been too highly 
colored, Dudley writing that " we found the colony in a 



PURITAN SETTLEMENT AT BOSTON 169 

sad and unexpected condition, about eighty of them 
being dead the winter before, and many of those 
aHve being weak and sick, all the corn and bread 
among them all hardly sufficient to feed them a fort- 
night." On account of this state of affairs most of 
these new arrivals settled in different places: some at 
Charlestown, where Endicott had already located fifty 
of his colonists; some across the river near where 
Blackstone had his plantation; and others at Medford, 
Watertown, Cambridge, Roxbury, and Dorchester, — 
eight separate settlements within a year dotting the 
shore between Salem and Dorchester — Watertown, four 
miles up the river from Charlestown, being the most in- 
land. 

Winthrop soon after his arrival settled at Charles- 
town, where the year before "a great house" had been 
built in which " the Governor & several of the patentees 
dwelt, while the multitude set up cottages, booths and 
tents about the Town Hill." Soon after locating here, 
believing that the present site of Boston was a more 
suitable place for the settlement, "the Governor & 
the greater part of the church removed thither, whither 
also the frame of the governor's house in preparation 
at this town [Charlestown] was carried, " its favorable 
location at the head of the bay soon making this place 
the principal town of the growing colony. 

In all these Bay settlements there was at first much 
suffering. Between April and December some of the 
settlers returned home, and nearly two hundred died» 



170 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Winthrop in a letter to his wife writing: ''We may 
not look at great things here. It is enough that we 
shall have Heaven, though we pass through Hell for 
it. We here enjoy God and Jesus Christ. Is it not 
enough.^" That same year, while the French were 
making hostile preparations against the colony, a 
tax upon the different settlements was assessed for 
the purpose of erecting a fortification at Cambridge. 
This levy the settlers at Watertown refused to pay 
upon the long-established principle that Englishmen 
cannot be rightfully taxed except with their own con- 
sent, this protest being another manifestation of that 
independent spirit which in the next century was to 
bring about the Revolution. The following year not 
only were the powers of the government more clearly 
defined, but there was also enacted a law that the 
whole body of freemen should elect the governor, 
deputy governor, and assistants, and that each town 
should send two representatives to a general court 
to decide, with the governor and his assistants, all 
questions of taxation. 

With these Bay settlers the Plymouth colonists soon 
had active commercial relations, and, although both 
colonies had many things in common, the Bay colonists 
were never friendly with those at Plymouth, as the 
Plymouth people were always ready to make new 
experiments both civil and ecclesiastical, and had 
broken with the past to a greater extent than even 
they themselves realized. The conservative Puritans 



PURITAN SETTLEMENT AT BOSTON 171 

of the Bay, therefore, thought them too radical, as 
well as too tolerant both in matters of opinion and 
conduct, hence there was always friction between the 
two colonies. This often ripened into meddlesome 
interference on the part of the Bay settlers, which 
later showed itself in their attempt to divert the trade 
of the Plymouth colonists by trespassing on their 
territory. 




THE FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON 



CHAPTER XA^ 



ASTOXISHIXG PROSPERITY OF THE COLOXY 

For five years trading had been a very profitable 
business with the Plymouth colonists. The log houses 

had already 
given way to 
c o ni modi o u s 
one-stor\' struc- 
tures with gam- 
brel roofs and 
generous ga- 
bles, so that 
the settlement 
had now as- 
s u m e d t h e 
appearance of 
a town. Unlike the southern colonies, neither the 
Plymouth nor the Massachusetts Bay colony had 
ever been dependent upon England for manufactured 
articles, as there were good mechanics in every com- 
munity. The contact of the Plymouth settlers with 
their Puritan neighbors, who had come over in U)-28, 
Ur20, and lOoO, had broadened the Pilgrims' ideas 
of life, and the traffic that was carried on by them with 
these Puritans, with the Dutch at Manhattan, and with 
the vessels which frequently came into the harbor, had 




THE MYLES STAXDISH HOUSE 



ASTONISHING PROSPERITY 173 

developed in the Plymouth colonists shrewd business 
instincts. 

Fields were now being fenced for cattle raising, or- 
chards planted, roads laid out, and watercourses 
bridged. As the number of cattle increased, the settlers 
who had land at a distance from the town now built on 
this land temporary houses in which they lived during 
the summer, that they might be where their cattle were 
pastured, but gradually these thrifty farmers, who 
wished to be at all times near their work, gave up the 
old English custom of living in villages and going each 
day to their farms, and before long New England farm- 
houses with well-stocked farms and cultivated gardens 
were scattered throughout the colony. 

The sickness which had prevailed to such an alarm- 
ing extent in the Massachusetts Bay colony was now 
over, and, owing to the brisk trade which had sprung 
up between the two colonies, shallops were plying 
daily between Plymouth and the Bay. Everything 
which the Plymouth colonists had to sell was eagerly 
purchased, and their produce readily exchanged for 
the horses and the cattle which the Bay people had 
brought over. When the Bay colonists saw that 
their Plymouth neighbors were making large profits 
by trading with the Indians, they, too, began trading 
along the coast, but when, in the spring of 1631, one 
of the Massachusetts Bay pinnaces was driven by a 
storm into Plymouth Harbor, and it was learned that 
she had been secretly sent on a trading trip within 



174 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

the Plymouth territory, Bradford notified the Bay 
officials that such depredations must cease, or they 
would be resisted " even to the spending of our lives." 
The spicy correspondence which followed ended with 
Winthrop's agreeing that no further trading should 
be done within the Plymouth domain. 

That same spring Allerton was dismissed from the 
employ of the colonists, who had now learned from 
Winslow of his many false dealings with them during 
his trips to England. In 1(>34 he settled at ^lachias 
on the Maine coast, where he had already established 
a trading post. Here he began a damaging compe- 
tition with the Penobscot post. Later, when this vent- 
ure proved a failure, he established a fishing station 
at Marblehead, where he lived until he was warned from 
the town, and in 1644 settled in New Haven, ^^'here he 
died insolvent both in estate and reputation. 

During this summer the trading post at Castine 
was pillaged by the crew of a French vessel which had 
anchored in the harbor while Willet was away on a 
trading expedition, and all the merchandise, valued 
at over five hundred pounds, was taken from the four 
men left in charge, the French sailors, when leaving, 
making these men carry the goods to their boat, '* bid- 
ding them tell their master when he came that some 
of ye He of Rev gentlemen had been there." 

In the autumn the Plymouth church invited Roger 
Williams to be assistant preacher. This learned but 
bigoted AYelshman had arrived in Boston in February, 



ASTONISHING PROSPERITY 175 

and was unanimously asked by the members of the 
Boston church to act as their pastor during the absence 
of their own minister in England. When, however, 
Williams requested all members of the church to 
express repentance for ever having communed with the 
Church of England and in the future to refrain from 
attending such worship, the church refused to follow 
his wishes, and Williams moved to Salem. Here he 
was made assistant pastor of the Salem church, but, 
when he began to question the validity of the king's 
charter, the magistrates were obliged to request him 
to define his views more clearly lest these views 
imperil the church. This controversy Williams cut 
short by going to Plymouth, where he l)ecame the 
colleague of Ralph Smith, in contrast to whom his 
freshness and vigor proved highly acceptable, and, 
as Plymouth had no royal charter to be assailed, 
the colonists were sufficiently liberal to tolerate his 
illiberality. 

Williams was an extremist in thought, speech, and 
action, although the doctrines vvhich he then held 
were in the main what would now be called conserva- 
tive. He was opposed to any union of Church and 
State: he would have done away with all contributions 
for religious purposes which were not voluntary, and, 
arguing that the land of the new country could only be 
rightfully obtained from the Indians, claimed the 
king was an intruder upon American soil and had no 
right to give royal charters. Later he returned to 



176 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Salem, and because he had evolved '* from the Alembic 
of his soul the sublime principle of liberty of con- 
science," and had dared to affirm that " the ecclesiasti- 
cal should be wholly divorced from the ci^^l power 
and that the church and the majestrary should be con- 
fined to its appropriate sphere." his ^^ews were con- 
sidered treason. After a long public trial he was 
ordered to return to England by the General Court 
held in 1636 at Boston. This led to his going to 
Xarragansett Bay, where he established the Providence 
Plantation. With more mature years his religion 
grew still more liberal, and during his life at Xarra- 
gansett Bay he developed his great doctrine of freedom 
of conscience — a doctrine to which he was never 
afterwards disloyal. 

In November, 1631, the Lion, having among her 
passengers Governor Winthrop's wife and family, 
arrived at Boston. Two weeks afterv\'ards Governor 
Bradford made his first official visit to the colony in 
order to pay his respects to the governor's wife, 
who upon her arrival had been formally received by 
the entire militia of the Bay. During this visit due 
honor was paid him as governor of the Plymouth 
colony, but, as he was a man impatient of ceremony 
and parade, the aristocratic surroundings of the execu- 
tive mansion were less congenial to him than the 
cabin of the Lion, where he spent the night with 
his friend. Captain Peirce. 



CHAPTER XVI 




THE SPREADING OUT OF THE COLONY 

1632 

Along the shores of Massachusetts Bay there were now 
nearly four thousand settlers. Among them were some 
who had the best of 
English blood — county 
squires, people of 
means and education, 
clergymen, sturdy far- 
mers, prosperous trades- 
men, skilled craftsmen, 
and hardy seamen — 
men as thrifty and en- 
ergetic as the best of 
their descendants to- 
day. By reason of this 

great influx of people, corn and cattle were now bring- 
ing exorbitant prices. To the Plymouth colony this 
large emigration had brought unexpected prosperity. 
New farms were cleared, a large amount of corn was 
planted, and so many cattle were raised that it was 
voted that all cultivated land should be fenced. " There 
was no longer any holding them together," wrote Gov- 
ernor Bradford, "but they must of necessitie goe to 
their great lots; they could not otherwise keep their 
katle, and having oxen grown they must have land for 
plowing and tillage. ... By which means they were 



COPP 8 HILL, BOSTON 



178 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

scattered all over ye bay quickly & ye towne in which 
they lived compactly till now was left very thine & in 
a short time allmost desolate." 

With the growth of the settlement some of the colon- 
ists had located across the bay at "Duxberie" where 
there was more pasturage for their cattle. And in 
1632 so many were living there that they objected to 
bringing " their wives & children to ye publick wor- 
ship & church meetings here," and asked to be dis- 
missed from the Plymouth church, that they might 
estabhsh a new church of their own. They also asked 
to be incorporated as a separate town, although the 
Duxbury land had originally been granted to them with 
the understanding that they should always worship at 
Plymouth and live there during the winter. When, 
however, such prominent men as Standish, Alden, and 
Jonathan Brewster, the son of Elder Brewster, now 
asked for a separate incorporation and a separate 
church, a reluctant consent was given, Bradford voicing 
a wide-spread feeling when he wrote that this separa- 
tion presaged the ruin of the church " & will provoke 
ye Lord's displeasure against them." 

The large emigration to the Massachusetts coast, 
followed by the spreading out of the different settle- 
ments, had convinced the Indians that it was only a 
question of time when the white settlers would have 
possession of all their territory. In 1631 they made a 
few desultory raids for pillage and robbery upon some of 
the outlying settlers, and the same year some Maine In- 



SPREADING OUT OF THE COLONY 179 

dians killed a Dorchester man and his four companions 
who were trading along their coast in a shallop. On 
another part of the Maine coast other Indians had 
killed two settlers, and after robbing their house had 
set it on fire with the bodies in it. In April, 1632, as a 
part of a conspiracy against the white settlers of Massa- 
chusetts, the Narragansetts began war upon Massasoit, 
and during an attack upon his village at Sowams had 
forced him to flee for protection to a Plymouth trading 
post near there. At the time of Massasoit's flight to 
this Plymouth fort, Standish with three other colonists 
happened to be there, and Standish, as soon as he had 
sent an Indian runner to Plymouth for more gun- 
powder, made preparations for an attack. No fighting, 
however, occurred, for after a short siege the Narragan- 
setts withdrew, word having been sent to them that 
their neighbors, the Pequots, had taken advantage of 
their absence and invaded their territory. A few weeks 
later Standish notified Governor Bradford that these 
two great nations, the Narragansetts and the Pequots, 
had become suspiciously friendly. 

That fall Governor Winthrop paid his first official 
visit to Plymouth, sailing with his party to Weymouth 
in the Lion, which was now returning to England by 
way of Virginia. From there they took the Indian trail 
to Plymouth, where " the governor of Plimouth, Mr. 
William Bradford, a very discret & grave man, with 
Mr. Brewster the elder & some others came forth & 
met them without the town & conducted them to the 



180 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

governor's house where they were very kindly enter- 
tained & feasted every day at several houses." 

On the Lion, which was largely owned by Sherley, 
the Plymouth colonists shipped at Weymouth for Eng- 
land eight hundred pounds of beaver and other skins. 
During the voyage, however, the vessel was wrecked, 
her cargo lost, and five of her ten passengers, besides 
seven of her crew of twenty-eight sailors, were drowned. 
Although the loss of these beaver skins was a heavy 
one to the colonists, yet so prosperous had the year as 
a whole been that they appointed a day for thanks- 
giving. In those early times no special day of tlie year 
had ever been set aside for Thanksgiving Day, as a day 
was always given to the worship of God whenever the 
colonists felt that there was some direct manifestation 
of His mercy and favor in times of peril; when some 
trouble with the Indians was suppressed; when con- 
tairious diseases were overcome; when a vessel arrived 
in port bringing needed provisions and stores, or when 
there was a bounteous harvest. On the Thanksgiving 
Day this year the colonists rejoiced in "an especial 
manner" in spite of the loss of their cargo and the fact 
that they had just suffered from "a plague of mos- 
quitoes and rattlesnakes." 



CHAPTER XVII 



TRADING POST ON THE CONNECTICUT RIVER 



1633 

There being now many different settlements scat- 
tered along Cape Cod, it was voted at the annual town 
meeting held in 1633 to make 
the town of Plymouth the 
colonial capital, this being 
the official beginning of Plym- 
outh as a town, in distinc- 
tion from the colony of " New 
Plimouth." At this meeting, 
Winslow was chosen governor, 
and, although Bradford had 
refused a re-election as gov- 
ernor and "by opportunity 
gat off," he consented to be 
one of the executive council which w^as this year 
increased to seven members. Among the new 
members of the council was one John Doane w^ho, 
soon after the election having been made a deacon 
in the church, was allowed to resign as a member of the 
council in accordance with the policy of the govern- 
ment that the Church and State should be separate and 
distinct bodies. 

The actions of the Indians had now become so sus- 
picious that the colonists were alarmed lest there might 




EDWARD WINSLOW 



182 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

be a general uprising against the whites, for they knew 
that, should this occur, the Indians could easily ex- 
terminate them, even if all the Massachusetts colonists 
joined against them. As a precaution, it was, therefore, 
voted " that whereas our ancient work of fortification 
... is decayed that every able-bodied man either do or 
provide his share as assigned by the Governor &; 
Council in repairing it." This same year the colony 
was visited by a locust pestilence which Bradford spoke 
of as " a quantitie of great sorte of flies like to wasps or 
bumble bees which come out of holes in ye ground & eat 
the green things and made such a constante yelling 
noyes as made ye woods ring of them vV ready to deafe 
ye hearers." The Indians had prophesied that this 
was a forewarning that some disease would follow, and, 
as it happened, the next summer an "infectious fever'' 
swept away large numbers of Indians and twenty of 
the inhabitants of the town. 

During this summer of 1633 a small tribe of Connecti- 
cut River Indians, who had been driven from their 
territory by the Pequots, persistently besought the 
Plvmouth colonists to aid them in cjettinir back their 
countrwand, in order to have them as allies, asked them 
to establish in their country a trading post, where, as 
these Indians claimed, the colonists would have a large 
trade with the inland Indians. The Dutch at Man- 
hattan in a previous year had told the colonists of the 
ver\' fertile soil along the valley of the Connecticut 
River, which they called the ''Fresh River," and had 



TRADING POST, CONNECTICUT RIVER 183 

advised them to chani;o their settkMuent to this phvce. 
It was, therefore, now decided to send a vessel on a trip 
lip the Connecticut River to explore the country, to 
trade with the Inihans, and to see about establishing 
there a trading- post. Upon the return of the vessel 
with the report that the trade was small, the colonists 
declined to make any alliance with these Connecticut 
Indians, fearing it might stir up hostile feelings among 
the Pequots. 

Upon their refusal the tribe then applied to the Massa- 
chusetts Bay colony, which also declined to give them 
any assistance. Later as the officials at the Bay sug- 
gested to the Plymouth colonists that the two colonies 
carry on trade together on the Connecticut River, 
Bradford and Winslow, at their request, went to Boston 
to arrange for a joint occupancy of the country. Upon 
their arrival they found that the Bay colonists had 
changed their minds, and were making excuses *' more 
like pretexts than real motives," evidently with the idea 
that later they themselves might get control of the 
country. The Plymouth colonists having now decided 
to establish a trading post there, in September " their 
great new barque," under the command of William 
Holmes and having on board a trading house built in 
sections, left Plymouth for the Connecticut River. 
AVhere Hartford now is they found that the Dutch had 
built a fort and had mounted two cannon to command 
the river, and, when the Dutch threatened to fire upon 
them, should they attempt to proceed. Holmes replied 



184 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

that the governor of Plymouth had ordered him to as- 
cend the river, and, whether they fired or not, he should 
obey orders. "So they passed along, and though the 
Dutch threatened them hard yet they shoot not. Com- 
ing to their place [Windsor] they clapt up their house 
quickly and landed their provisions and left ye com- 
panie appoynted and sent the bark home and after- 
wards palisadoed their house aboute and fortified them- 
selves better." 

The Dutch who, on the ground of having originally 
discovered the Connecticut River, now claimed ex- 
clusive ownership of this territory, the next year sent 
from Manhattan an armed force of seventy men to 
take possession of the Plymouth trading post, but, on 
finding the place well fortified and a garrison prepared 
to resist them, a conference was held which resulted 
in the Manhattan forces returning to the fort at Hart- 
ford. That fall the Dutch sent four of their men up the 
river beyond the Windsor fort to secure the furs which 
would otherwise come to the fort, and to prevent a pow- 
erful tribe of Indians living to the north from making a 
treaty of peace with the Plymouth men. While these 
men were with this tribe, malignant small-pox broke 
out in the tribe, and carried off all but fifty of their 
thousand warriors. The disease also spread among the 
Indians around Windsor, and as there were not a suffi- 
cient number of well persons among them to procure 
food and fuel for the sick, their wooden trays, bowls, 
and bows and arrows were used to make fires, many 



TRADING POST, CONNECTICUT RIVER 185 

dying while crawling to the bank of the river for water. 
From the Connecticut valley the disease spread among 
the Narragansetts, and the smaller tribes about Boston, 
over seven hundred Narragansett warriors dying, and 
some of the smaller tribes being entirely wiped out. 

During this epidemic, the Plymouth men at the 
Connecticut fort having taken proper precautions 
against small-pox, did not contract the disease, and so 
were able to care for the sick. In the middle of the 
winter the four Dutch emissaries who had gone up the 
river arrived at the Windsor fort so exhausted from 
their long journey through the snow that only owing to 
the most careful nursing by these Plymouth men were 
their lives saved. This kindness the Dutch always 
remembered, and never afterwards molested the Wind- 
sor settlement. 



^'^^^B^ 



EXPLORING THE CONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY 



CHAPTER XVm 

THF BEGIN-XIXG OF EXGUSH IXTERFEKEXCT 

lo34 

In 10:U Thomas Pronce was chosen eovernor. 
lu ICoS and from 1657 to lt>73 he was also governor. 
^i\_ besides being for 

^^~-^J\]0 : ^ / ^ V C^\Ck^ tliirtv years a mem- 
*^ ber of the exeeu- 

tivo council. Although he was a man of dignity, 
yet. owing to his strong orthodox zeal, he was often 
harsh in carrying out his othcial duties. AVhile gov- 
ernor, he died at Plymouth in U>7o. leaving for those 
days a large fortune. 

In May. Ui:U. when the spring trade with the Indians 
began, one John Htx^kings. in charge of a trading 
post on the l^scataqua Uiver for Lord Si^y and Sele. 
Lord Brooke, and other English o^^n.e^s. anchored 
his bark on the Kennebe<.\ a short distance above the 
Plymouth trading post, so that he might get the trade 
wliich otherwise would come to the post. Thereupi^n. 
John Rowland, then in chanre of the post, taking 
with him some of the men at the fort and John Alden 
who had recHMitly arrived with a stix^k of gixxis in the 
colony's hark, went in this bark to where IKx^kings was 
anchored, and commanded him to anchor outside the 
Plvmouth territory. This Ibx^kings not only n^fused 
to do. but detied Rowland to molest him. llowland 



KXCiLlSll IN TKKFKKKXrK 187 

lU'corclinoly sont t\>ur mon in n hoiii over to 
1 lockings' vos<;ol to cnt tlio anchor cahlo. This Mas 
(lone hv ono 'I'albot. and it st^ anoorod llockinirs 
that ho shot Talbot thron^h the hcail. 'I'lion a friend 
o( Talbot's "that loved him well.'' and was on 
the Plynionth bark, picked np his nnisket and shot 
1 lockings. 

The killing of Ilockings had fanned into a tlanie the 
Puritan dislike to the riyniouth Separatists and three 
weeks later, when John Alden sailed into Boston Har- 
bor with a cargo of merchandise, he was arrested 
and imprisoned. That same day, when the vessel re- 
turned to Plymouth, the colonists, indignant at this 
interference of the Bay colonists — the Kenneboc 
River beino- outside the limits of tlu^ Ba\- colony o-rant 
— at once sent Stautlish to Boston to demand Aldon*s 
release. Upon Standish's presentation o'i the case, 
Alden, who was out on bail, was given his liberty and 
his sureties wore discharged, Standish being put under 
bonds to appear before the ^[assachusetts court in two 
weeks to make proof of Plymouth's rights on the Ken- 
nebec and to corroborate his statements about the shoot- 
ing. At the hearing Standish so bluntly censured the 
Bay people for their interference where they had no 
jurisdiction that considerable hard feeling was the result. 
Tong afterwards the Bay settlers excused their action 
by saying that, at the time of the Ilcx^kings incident, 
it was known in the l^ay colony that the king had just 
issued to the archbishops of York and Canterbury 



188 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

and ten others a commission which placed the colonies, 
both in Church and State affairs, under their control, 
and that they thought it necessary to take an active 
interest in the Hockings case, even if their invasion of 
Plymouth rights was a high-handed act, as they had 
feared that, unless some action were taken, their English 
enemies, led by Lord Say and Sele and Lord Brooke, 
would prevail upon the king to send over a royal gov- 
ernor for New England, in w^hich case their church and 
civil liberties would be lost. Their fears of having a 
royal governor, however, were groundless, as enough 
political influence was brought to bear upon the com- 
mission to prevent any steps being taken against the 
colony. 

For the Plymouth people the year had been unusually 
prosperous, partly owing to the large amount of furs 
taken at their Kennebec post and partly to the large 
amount of trading done with the Dutch at Manhattan. 
In the summer, Winslow, returning from a trading 
trip up the Connecticut River, had, instead of sailing 
around the Cape, taken the vessel to the trading post 
near Sowams. From there he had sent the vessel back 
on another trip, and returned to Plymouth, accom- 
panied by Massasoit who had some of his men take 
the goods across the Cape. Upon Winslow's arrival 
he found the town in mourning, as Massasoit had 
sent word ahead that he had been killed, the mes- 
senger giving in detail the time and place where 
the murder had been committed. For this false re- 



ENGLISH INTERFERENCE 189 

port Massasoit was severely censured, although he 
said that what he had done was in accordance 
with an Indian custom to insure for Winslow a 
warmer welcome. 

In the fall Winslow was sent to England with 3,738 
pounds of beaver skins and 234 of other skins, valued 
at about four thousand pounds sterling. Besides 
other commissions, he was especially charged to get 
an accounting from Sherley, who each year had evaded 
making one. He was also appointed agent of the 
Bay colony to appear before the King's Commissioners 
for Plantations, in order "to obtain a commission to 
withstand the intrusions of the French and the Dutch 
at the east and at the west." One of the members 
of this commission was Archbishop Laud, who already 
was planning to send over Sir Ferdinando Gorges as 
governor of all the New England colonists, hoping in 
this way to get the Church of England firmly established 
and "to force upon them the yoke of our ceremonials 
and intermixtures so as to deter others from going." 
Gorges, who already had been nominated governor- 
general, was to take with him a thousand soldiers, a 
vessel being then building to take them over. When 
Winslow, who in England had the reputation of being 
one of the most prominent men in New England, 
appeared before the commission, he was accused by 
Laud not only of having taught in the Plymouth 
church on Sundays, but of having joined people in 
marriage. With more candor than caution, Winslow 



190 



OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 



defended his action, declaring that he knew of no 
spiritual ground for not doing as he had. For these 
radical ideas Laud had him committed to Fleet Prison, 
where he was kept seventeen weeks before rei.xnving 
his libertv to return to Flvmouth. 




FLEET PKISON 



CITAFIEU XIX 

THE PENOBSCOr THAOlNc; r(.)ST LOST 

lo35 

The t'oroii^n coininorco o( "Nrassacluisotts had now 
grown to sncli an extent tliat chii'ing one week in 1(>:>,) 
ten foreign vessels were 
lying at anehor in l>oslon 
Harbor. In the spring of 
this year AVinsiow, as tlie 
agent of tlie Plynunitli 
eolony. was again sent to 
England, and, although 
still nnal)le to get Sher- 
ley to make an aeeonnting, 
tnrned over to him o,()7S 
pounds of beaver skins 
and 4(U> skins of otters, 
minks, and black foxes, 
their value like the ship- 
ment the year before be- 
ing about four thousand 
pounds. 

In August of this year the colonist's fort at Castine 
was taken from them ** in ye name of ye King of France'* 
and all the merchandise contiscated, A\ illet ami his 
three men being given a boat with which to get 
back to Plymouth. Upon their arrival the colonists 
at once asked the Massachusetts Bay people to join 




THE ARKlVAt. OF BAY SKTTl.KKS IN 
CONNFCTIOUT 



192 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHEKS 

with them in driving the French frvmi the coiintrv. 
since such ck\>e pi\^ximity was a men;uv to both 
colonies, but the Bav colonists. aUhough thov ap- 
prmeil the plan, were nnwilling to go to any ex^xMisc 
in the matter. The vessel of one Girling being then 
in Boston Harbor, the Plymouth people employeil him 
to get for them p^^ssession of the fort. " In considera- 
tion wher^^f he was to have 700 jxninds of beaver, 
to be delivered to him ther. when he had done ye 
thing, but if he did not accomplish it he was to lose 
his labour and have nothing. . . . AVith him they also 
sent their owne bark and about -20 men with Captaine 
Standish to aid him if needc wtvr and to order things 
if tlie house was r^giiined and then to pay liim ye 
beaver which they keept aborvi their owne barke." 
Girling, when he came within sight of the fort, began a 
furious caimonading. but. by the time he was near 
enough for elfective tiring, the jxnvder gave out and 
Standish was obligcii to return on his bark to Pem- 
aquid, the ncarx\^t plantation, for a fresh supply. 
While here Standish learned that, even if Girling was 
not sucivssful in getting possession of the fort, he 
intended seizing the beaver skins, and so. after sending 
to Girliui: tlie powder. Standish sailed for Plymouth 
with the Ivaver skins which were on the bark. Upon 
ret^'civing the powder. Girling at once sailed for England 
without attempting any assault. 

Upon Standish*s return the governor and council 
immediatelv sent a letter to the Bav colonists airain ask- 



PENOBSCOT TRADING POST LOST 193 

ing tor assistaiue in forcing the French from the country 
and urging the necessity of getting possession of the 
fort at once, as the French would now probably fortify 
the phicc more strongly than ever. To this letter the 
Bay people replied by asking the Plymouth colonists to 
send some duly authorized persons to Boston to con- 
sider the matter with them. In answer to their r(M|ucst 
two of the colonists went to lioston, but the conference 
came to nothing, "for when they came to ye issue they 
would be at no charge." Soon aftenvards the Bay 
colonists began trading with the French then in pos- 
session of the fort, furnishing them with provisions, 
powder and shot *'so as it is no niarvcll," wrote 15rad- 
ford, " though they still grow «Js: encroach more c^^ more 
upon ye Fnglish and hll ye Indians Avith gunes «Jv: nui- 
nishtion to yc great deangcr of ye English." AVhat 
Bradford predicted proved true. The Castine fort was 
fortified more strongly than ever, and became as 
profitable to the Fi'ench as it had been to the Plymouth 
people, being held by the French until 1C94. 

Now that the small-pox c})idcmic had swept away the 
Indians along the Connecticut River valley, some of the 
Massachusetts Bay people began planning to settle 
there. In 1084 Elder Goodwin, of Cambridge, pe- 
titioned the General Court that his church be allowed to 
move in a body to Connecticut, and, although the Court 
refused, public clamor for a settlement there still con- 
tinued, it being specially urgetl on the ground that it 
was necessary to possess the country, lest it be occupied 



194 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

by the Dutch or *' other Enghsh," for it was then known 
that the Plymouth colonists were seriously considering 
locating there themselves in a body. 

Xotwithstandino- the action of the General Court, 
a large detachment from the Dorchester church left for 
the Connecticut River in the spring of l()o.). and. on 
arriving at Windsor, Jonathan Brewster, who was in 
charge of the fort, otfered them what hospitality he 
could, stored their goods, and loaned them canoes with 
which to explore the country. After finishing their ex- 
plorations, they told Brewster that they had decided to 
settle at Windsor. Against this, Brewster and the 
Plymouth men vigorously protested, since there were 
hundreds of miles of other equally good land at their 
disposal. They also reminded these Dorchester people 
that they had purchased the land of the Indians in U>o8, 
tliat they had defendeil it against the Dutch, and that 
their own colony was thinking of settling there. To this 
the pious Dorchester men replied that it was ** the Lord's 
wast," thiit it was only being used as a trading post, 
and that, as they had come to this place '' by His Provi- 
dence,'' they should seize the land and put it " to ye 
right end for which land was created." Every means 
short of physical force was used to prevent this outrage, 
but, as Brewster had received strict ordei*s from the 
Plymouth government not to forcibly drive them away 
— another Hockintjs traijedv beinix feared — ^lie was un- 
able to prevent a settlement being made. That same 
year, at Savbrook at the mouth of the Connecticut, the 



PENOBSCOT TRADING TOST LOST 195 

Bay colony built another fort to prevent the Duleh 
settling on the river. 

During the controversy over this AVindsor settlement 
two shallops had started from Dorchester with goods 
fen* the Connecticut settlers. These were wrecked on 
Brown Island Shoal while trying to make Plymouth 
Harbor during a storm, and all on board were drowned. 
Notwithstanding the hard feeling which had grown 
out of the usurpation of their Connecticut territory, 
Bradford had the goods that washed a.shore dried and 
sent to the ownei*s at Dorchester, and later, when an- 
other carfro was lost oft" Sandwich, he aoainhad the floods 
sent to Dorchester. That fall Winslow returned from 
England, bringing with him John Norton, who was 
made assistant minister of their church. Norton, 
however, remained with them only a year, as he re- 
ceived a call to be the pastor of the church at Ipswich, 
where there were " many rich and able men and sundry 
of his acquaintances, so he wente to them." 




THE FORT AT PEMAQUID 



CHAPTER XX 



THE RXACTMKXT OF A COPF. OF I„\WS 

lo3o 

The town of Plvmouth had now a cfist-milh a >aw- 
milh a blacksmith's shop, and a o».x'»^vnii:o shop. 

Those, witli its 
markot-phuw 
Nvharf. tishiniX 
a n d t r a ding 
boats, h a d 
•nade it one of 
;he im^x^rtant 
towns on the 
eoast. Thert^ 
wer\^ also in 
the town a 
villaiTt^ inn and 
a court-house: sluvp raisiiu: and the hand-weaving 
of wool woiv now amoiu: the industries of tlie town: 
oxen anvi hoT^esN\ere in common use. but. as few bridges 
had yet Ixvn built, the streams had to be fonleil in 
gvMiig from place to platv. 

For tifttvn years the othcials of the riymouth coh^ny 
had btvn annually eUx^ted without having their duties 
deiinoii, Wing subjtvt only to such limitations of official 
powers as the town mtx^tings from time to time deter- 
mined. The communitv was now tix^ lanri" to have the 




TH*r MAJV>R BKAI>rORI» HV^rSOE 



ENACTMIONT OF A (U)l)10 OF LAWS 107 

(lotails of llio ojovcriiiiUMil decided In mass inceliii^s, aiul 
its afTairs, botli doincslic and rorcio-n, wore now loo 
iniporlant to be carried on willioul some rormallv de- 
lined form of <»;overnment with limitations of ollicial 
power. Inasnuich ;is the laws and enactments at the 
diHerent town meetings of former years had never been 
syslemalically kept, and many of them ha<l never been 
recorded, it was voted at a town meeting- held in Wt'Mi 
that a connnission, consislino^ of the o-overnor and his 
council, should prepare a code of laws for the govern- 
ment of the colony. In the preamble to this code of 
laws was the first declaration of rights c^ver made on the 
American continent, it being stated that " the citizens of 
the New Kngland Colony as free subjects of I^'ngland, 
are entitled to enact as follows: that no imposition, law 
or ordinance be made or imposed upon or by ourselves 
or others at present or to (!omc, but such as shall be 
made or imposed by consent according to the free 
lil)erties of the state and kingdom of 1^'ngland and not 
otherwise." Jt was a broad statement for those days, 
and resulted from tliat spirit of independence which 
prosperity had inspired, in later days tiiis being the issue 
which brought about the Revolutionary War and the 
independence of the colonies. 

It is not known what, U]) to this time, had l)een the 
form of government of the colony or what had been tlie 
duties and powers of the governor and the council, 
but, as the laws ])assed in 1()'U> were in general merely 
recorded revisions of the laws in force in England, it is 



lOS OUK PLYMOUTH R^^RITATHOiS 

pKitvjiMe thai die <x4oiiT up fro this time Iwd been svw- 
«TK\i bv V^i^rlisii fciw^ By the iKw sfcatiites it \va> e«- 
;)M^I«e\i th*t *ll iK^w ki^s *nd all chai^je^ of the oid lnws 
<houVi onlv W nvii«le bv the fw^enien rec^iUHy calkvi at 
town n>eetii\sr>; that annualhr oil the tii^ l\ie>sday of 
Maivh " a GowriKwr ainl <^^vvn ajsjaociate^fi be cho>4ei\ to 
rwW and goven>e the saiid planfc»cons within the ^swd 
limited for one \x\iure aini ik> nK>iv'* ; that all claims umier 
iortv shilhiur? ainl all petty otfejxvs were to be vkvkled 
by the cvHiiKnl: and that all lai^^r clainv? and all «inv« 
shoiikl W tried by jurie?^ From tin>e fro tin>e, ad- 
ditioi^ we^v n\a^ie fro the^ae Uws until I^sVn. whei\ a 
j^evxMKl revision was nvade, a thiivl ivvisioii beit^ luade 
in 1<^TI and a fvxirth in l^>. 

In Jum^, li^:^, 'rhv>inas lUx>ker, ihe ^v^stor of tfw 
chun.-'h in Cambridi>^, with a huuvlivxi v>f his chunrh 
en\krrafr«>d fr«> the Coitmvticut and jjettkxi near tfie IXiK-h 
tradiuiT p^^itt at HartfoTvl. for "^ hei>cii\i: v\f ye fanK* of the 
Coiikrhtioute river they had a haitkeriug miinl affrer 
it,*' Soon afteiwaivls aiK4her Kxiy of l\mtans k^ 
AVafreitown. aiui s^-ttkxl at \Vethei^4d, AKxit the 
sanK* tinn^ the otheis v>f the IX^ivhesfrer ehuivV ; .> 

AVindsor* all thes<^ emiirratk^\s beiiiiT i>ot of ir. <, 

but of chuiv^hes. InasnuK^i as thesjt" peopk elaiuHxl 
alk^aiKx* to the Hay ookM\y, the oflk^ials of that cok\ny 
at oiKx^ a^uuHxl authority o\xt the m^w townss althiMiiirh 
they were vHitskk* the limits v^ its charter, A^iust 
this usurpatKMi of authority by the Massachusetts Bay 
cok«iy some of the Cambri^%^^ pei^4t\ wIk> had settkxi 



ENACTMENT OV A COIM-. OV 1 AWS ^.^9 

within the Phinoxith territon . anvl nianv v>f tho now 
arnvaJs fn>m lX>i\*hestor, when thov loarnod Iionn tho 
Plvmouth ivlonists had Kvn ttvattnl. prv^tosttnl and 
" rW'iolYeil to quit vo phuv it* thov [tho l>av oi^lonv] 
ixniKl not a^^tvi^ with thiv^o of rHn\out!\/* 

AlthvHiirh the PKmouth i»\>Yonnnont unrod tho 
otHoiais at l^\<ton to rii^ht tho w rvMig liono in rtM*ot\M\«.v 
t*> tht^o Coniuvtiout >ottlon\ont.<. no atton\pt at anv 
iv:!5titutit>n wa> ovor niado. hut aftor n\any futile etTorts 
a i\>nipT\^n\ise was br\nii;ht about "for [x\uv* sake, 
though thev cvmvivtHl thev sutToreil uuioh in this thiuix.** 
Hy this «.\>uipr\nuiso tho Plymouth ivlouy rotaintnl thoir 
tradiiuj ^x\st and one-sixteenth of their traet, and 
rtwivtH^ tifttvn-sixtivnths of tho amount which thov 
had ^wid tor it to the Indians. "Thus was tho oon- 
tnweisy endeil, but the unkindness not so soon tor- 
Ci^tten/' 

rhe traffic which the " I ndortakors" woiv canyiniT 
on was irixwvini* so nuich hvn:^^^ each year that Bradforxi 
"had marxx^lkxi'* at the amount. Shorlov's indobtod- 
noss to them for shipments of furs to him now amountod. 
as the iH>lonists Miovoik to moi\^ than two thousand 
[XHinds, but, as he was still unwining to settle tho ac- 
ixnint, he was peremptorily dismisseil as the ai^.Mit of the 
colony. I.i»ter. in ItU^. a sottlomont was made with him 
by jvwing him one hundroil and tifty jxnmds storUnix: 
the same year a settlement was made with Andi\nvs. an- 
other df tlio Knclish |\nrtners, by i^ayiui: him tivo hun- 
dreii and forty-four ^xninds: and in U>4t> with tho thiixi 



200 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 



partner, Beaiichamp, who received houses and lands in 
Plymouth valued at two hundred and ten pounds and 
ten shillings; the fourth partner, Hatherley, having 
before this time joined the colony. With these pay- 
ments the Plymouth Republic after a quarter of a cen- 
tury for the first time enjoyed the luxury of being 
out of debt, and, although during these years its debts 
had been inflated, its funds embezzled, and its con- 
fidence betrayed, the colonists preferred to submit to 
fraud and to pay unjust claims rather than feel that 
any one \vas not receiving what was his just due. 

During this year, 1636, the town records show that 
John Billington's widow was fined five pounds and 
ordered to sit in the stocks and be pubHcly whipped, 
this being the first record of stocks being used in the 
colony. The same year Ralph Smith resigned his 
pastorate, and settled in Manchester, Massachusetts, 
liis resignation being at the request of the members of 
tlie church, who had come to the conclusion that he 
had little or no ability. The same year John Raynor, 
'* an able and godly man." was made their pastor, and 
remained with them until 1654, when he went to 
Dover, New Hampshire, where he died in 1669. 




KKLICS OF BY-OOXE DATS 



CHAPTER XXI 



THE I'KQUOr WAR 

lo37 

As the Connecticut settlements were outposts in the 
heart of the Indian country, trouble was inevitable. 
T h e P e q u o t Indians, a 
powerful and warlike tribe, 
ruled the eastern half of the 
State, and five miles into 
Kliode Island. From there 
to Narragansott Bay their 
bitter enemies, the Narra- 
gansetts, d o m i n a t e d . 1 n 
1033 some Pequot Indians 
savagely mutilated and 
murdered one Captain Stone, 
and seven other Englishmen 
who had gone from the Bay colony on a trading 
trip up the Connecticut River, and although the chief 
of the Pequots, Sassacus, had promised to deliver the 
murderers to the government officials at Boston, he 
had made one excuse after another for not fulfillintr his 
promise. Later, in 1()3(>, John Oldham, now promi- 
nent in the Bay colony, while off Block Island in 
Narragansett Bay on a trading trip in his pinnace, 
was murdered by some Narragansett Indians. To 
avenge these murders, three vessels, imdcr the command 




PEQUOT INDIAN 



'riii: nx^iKn^ wAii 20:5 

of Isiulicoll, were s<'iil lo IIk' N;ii"r;i|!,-.iiis('l Is' coiiiilry 
willi ,1 coiiiiiiissioii '' lo |>iil. 1,0 (Icjilli llic MHMi of lilock 
Ishirid, [)iil lo spitrc llic woincii niid (itiidrcii, ;iii(l Iroiii 
IIhmicc lo o() lo ihc |*(>(jii()ls lo (Iciiijirid IIh^ rriiirdcrcrs of 
(';ij)l;iiM SloMc .'ind llic oilier Mii^lisliiMcii, Ix'sidcs oti<^ 
liioiis.iiid I'.'iIIkmiis of \v;iiii|)iMii Jor d:i,iiKio-(>.s ;itid soriK' of 
iiicir cliildrcii ns liosl;io(>s, wliicli, if lli<\y slioidd rcriisr, 
llicy were lo ohhiin l)y lorcc." A(liri<j;- under lliis(;oiM- 
iiiissioii, I^Jidicoll's iricii ilcviisl.ilcd Block Ishirid, Imrn- 
iii^ llic wi}:;w;ims ;iiid sinking- \\\r chwovh of llu^ Indians 
who had fled to the iiiiiiidatid upon Ihcir a|)|)roa(h. 
Sailinjj; juross lo Ihc niiiinl.iiid, llicy Ihcn jilhukcd llic 
N;irra^;iri,s('lls, and, .'illcr killin<^ several of llicir people, 
seized Iheir corn and nivji«i;-ed Iheir eonnlry. I^'rorn 
there l^hey sjiile<l lo I he 'IMiiiines Kiver, where I hey de- 
manded from the I*e(piols llie surrender of lh(^ nuir- 
dercrs of C;ipl;iin Slone and iiis men, hul, hein*^ un- 
;il)le to ol)l;iin any relrihulion, Ihey marched over the 
counlry, seized Ihe ii|)ened corn, l)urnin<j^ ;uid spoiling 
wliat they could not ciirry jiway, Jind, flushed with 
success, relurned lo Boslon. 

'J'lic cxpedilion ol' I^iiidicolt luid shown lo Ihe Indi;i,ns 
what the colonization ol* their counlry mcjiril, i'or ninon^ 
them were many who were not hehind the whites in 
s;i|^acily, Jind not slow to see what the outc<)me was sure 
to he. 'IMiey re;dized Ihnt Ihese Few white men who 
had been left on their Atlantic shores by vessels wliicli 
had sailed away were the he^irmin*^ of a, new type of 
civilization which in time would reach the Pacific 



204 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Ocean. The Peqiiots, having now an incentive to 
arouse all Indians to resist the whites, used every 
means in their power to induce the Narragansetts to 
join them in annihilating these settlers, and, had this 
nation co-oporatod, it is probable the New England 
colonists would have been exterminated. The Boston 
officials, appreciating the danger of such an alliance, 
had at once sent a messenger to entreat Roger Williams 
to prevent, if possible, this coalition, and Williams, 
"putting his life in his hands," at once went in his 
canoe to intercede with Canonchet, the successor of 
Canonicus the former chief of the Narragansetts. Here 
he found the Pequot sachems skilfully urging that an 
Indian league be formed against the English, as their 
only hope of self-preservation. For three days and 
nights he argued with Canonchet and his chief men, 
and because of their confidence in him the Narragan- 
setts finally ignored the overtures of the Pecjuots, their 
hereditary enemies, and agreed to enter into a league 
with the English, with whom later a treaty of peace 
was signed in Boston. 

Thwarted in their attempt to enlist the Narragan- 
setts in their plans, the Pequots determined to make 
war upon the Connecticut colony, wdiich now had a pop- 
ulation of eight hundred people, grouped in the three 
towns of Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hartford. Al- 
though these colonists had taken no part in the Endicott 
expedition, they were now kept in a continual state of 
alarm by the forays of the Pequots. Houses were 



THE PEQUOT WAR 205 

burned, and men going to their work outside the settle- 
ments were killed and mutilated. At Wethersfield one 
of the settlers was roasted alive; then the town was at- 
tacked, ten of the inhabitants being massacred, and two 
English girls carried off. Goaded to desperation, the 
Connecticut settlers now sought the assistance of Boston 
and Plymouth. While waiting, they formed a military 
organization, and, by assigning to each town its pro- 
portion of the miniature army, for the first time acted 
as a separate community and assumed the authority of 
Statehood. With the organization of this militia, which 
was put under the command of John Mason — ^an old 
Netherland soldier, who on his. arrival had settled in 
Dorchester and from there had moved to Windsor — a 
declaration of war was sent to the Pequots. 

With a little army of ninety men from the four Con- 
necticut settlements, twenty-five men under Captain 
Underbill from the fort at Saybrook, eighty Mohegan 
warriors, and the promised aid of the Narragansetts, 
Mason determined to attack the stronghold of the 
Pequots on the summit of a hill near the Mystic River. 
Here these Indians had a village surrounded by a 
palisade of saplings twelve feet high and firmly set in 
the ground. This stockade had at the opposite ends 
two openings, each barely large enough for a man to 
pass through, and within this enclosure of two or three 
acres were the crowded wigwams of several hundred 
Pequot Indians. 

Going down the Connecticut River with his ninety 



P^>^^1 




'rill' ri\,M i>r w ak 



•20\ 



liUMi aiul \]\c c\f;\\\\ "Wolxct'-^xw \\i\vv'\ovs o\\ llii-(^« vtvsscls, 
INlnstMi sU>ppotl ;il Snvl>rt>i>k. NN luM'o lu'W.is joiniul l>v 
I luKM'liill .nul his nuMi. l-'rom lino llu>\ >aiK'*l \o 
^arni^aiiMMl l>a\ . \\ Iumi^ lour lumdiiul \arr.Mi;aus(Mls 
>vrriM\ ailiiii;- lor tluMii. ( >n tluMiairiNal an Indian run- 
lUM- biiMiidit lluMn\\t>ril llial Caj^lain rahirk willi I'orlv 
nuMi tV(>ni tlu> AlassailuistMIs l>ay rt»l(>iu was on his 
>vaN lo \o\\\ iluMu. lull Masi>n. unwilling; to wail, al once 
luarvlu^l oxrrlauil wilh his t"oi\'tN lo w hero Sloui;hh)n 
Iit>\\ i--. Prronin;'; ihr rrnut>ls nih> hclioN ins.*; Ihal \\\c\v 
?;tronj;lu>Kl o\\ tho Thanu's l\iv(M- was lo hr allarUt^l. 
INlason niadi^ a h>nj;- thMour at ni>;hl. an»i al tlavhri^ak 
o\\ []\c n\(>riiin;; of Ma\ IwtMilx si\lh r(>aohc(l llu' 
jNlvstio vilhi^o whiMi^ llu^ Indians woro asloi^p in laniiiul 
.sot'urily. 'IMumv hulian allii\s. \\\c AL^hoi^ans and tho 
Narra^anst^tts. now losi tonrap^ and divsiMlod lluMn, 
lull, nol ilaunhul. Mason ad\ancod u|>on owe c\\- 
[vixucc and I ndrrhill upon Ihc oIIum'. an Indian siMili- 
nal. aroused h\ the barkniL'; o( a iloi^, onlv ^iviti*;" llio 
idarni whon Ihry WtM-o olosi^ to tlu^ fori. 'V\\c Indians, 
takiMi roniplotoK by surpnst\ b<Hanu^ al once [>anii'- 
striokiMi. and wlulo tryiui;- to tvsca{>(\ lirsl lhn>Ui;h ono 
iMitranoo autl thru tho otluM-. wtM\^ ruthU^ssh slu>l down. 
l"\\irini;' that tlu^ lutlians. who outnunihiM-cd lluvso as- 
sailants n(\irly f*>ur to owe, wt)nld in (k\sptM*alii>n scalo 
Iho t\>rt for a hand to hand tMU'ounliM-. Mason slu>ultHl, 
** ^^'o nuist burn tluMu." autl firebrands wiM-e al onco 
tin-own ovor tho palisa^Io amono- tho wigwams, w hoiv, 
tho llanuvs spivatlin^-. Ilio rarnaj^o was couiplolo — tho 



208 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Indians perishing in their burning dwelHngs. "It 
was a fearful sight to see them frying in ye fyer and ye 
streams of blood quenching ye same and horrible was 
ye stinck and sente thereof. The Narragansett Indians 
all this while stood round about but aloofe from all 
danger and left ye whole execution to ye English ex- 
cept it were ye stoping of any yt broke away, insulting 
over their enemies in this their ruine and miserie when 
they saw them dancing in ye flames, calling them by 
word in their own language signifying O brave 
Pequents ! " 

Of seven hundred Pequots, five escaped, seven were 
taken prisoners, and the others were either killed or 
perished in the flames, and thus the war, which had 
begun with what would have been a fatal blunder, if the 
Pequots had not been taken by surprise, ended with 
a victory for the English. After the battle Mason 
marched with his troops across country to Pequot Har- 
bor, where he was joined by Patrick and liis men, who 
during Mason's march inland had sailed there in the 
three vessels. From here the Massachusetts troops 
marched with Mason and his men overland to Say- 
brook, while Underhill with his troops went back in the 
vessels, and from here Mason's and Patrick's troops 
went in the vessels to Hartford. 

As soon as the Massachusetts Bay colony learned 
of Mason's success, one hundred men under the com- 
mand of Captain Stoughton of Dorchester were sent 
to the Connecticut with instructions to prosecute the 



THE PEQUOT WAR 209 

war to the bitter end. Reaching Pequot Harbor early 
in June, they were joined by forty Connecticut men 
whom the General Court at Hartford had ordered to 
continue the war, and these combined forces pursued 
the Pequots wherever they could be found, Sassacus 
and some of his followers being finally driven into a 
swamp near Fairfield, where many were killed, Sassacus 
fleeing to the Mohawks, a neighboring tribe, who, 
fearing the English, cut off his head and sent his 
scalp to Boston. After this success the victorious 
colonists marched through the Pequot country, burn- 
ing wigwams and granaries, the few Indians who were 
left being so scattered that the nation was never again 
able to estabhsh itself. Of the men whom the English 
had taken prisoners, thirty were blindfolded and 
from the deck of a vessel were walked overboard to 
a watery grave in the Thames. The rest were sold 
into slavery in the West Indies or distributed among 
the Narragansetts, the women and girls being assigned 
to the different colonial towns as house servants. 

No event in the early history of New England had a 
greater influence on its destiny than this war. Never 
before had the Indians heard of so terrible a vengeance, 
and never again, until King Philip's war, thirty-eight 
years afterwards, did they dare lift their hands against 
the whites. It was the first struggle of our ancestors 
with the aborigines of the country, who naturally 
believed that they themselves held the title to the soil. 
Yet these Christian white men, with all the humanity 



210 OIR PI YMOIHTH FOREFATHERS 

wliidi tiiey showcvi :o>v,^rd> their own p^x^^le aini 
witli ^ the p»etA~ whkh ':vv pry.^U'-^cj^xi t;>\«r;wvi> Gvxi, 
ac^ witii a cTuehr as inhuman a$ tiuit of the sax^aa^^ 
whom thev hopevl K> ChnslMmiie. Their *;i<ocistK^w 
with the Indians had so haivleued thetn h> liviian 
methods of waHaiw tiiat with e«iisY c»tt<»cie4ices thoy 
cwhr liaiited war by bukheiy. Captiwtr^ they wiUii^i^hr 
s^^ inK» slax-w' for |^rv>fit or gav^e' thent to their nK>>t 
hitter eiK^niies fi\r a Hfe ww^ than slawfy, This 
want of humanity was not foi^>tten by the linhaus 
when later« at the beii^innin^ of Kii^ PhiKpV war* 
the diffej>eiit New Ki^rlai^d triK^ xx^^iv nT\^xi to unite 
in dri\ii^ the Kugiish from the country. 

In this Pequot war the PhuKHith c\4vMUsts Ksd taken 
no fiait, but the PhTiKHith iworvis show that the ooi- 
onists had a^xxl with the Bay ooiony "to j^^ui »^> 
men at thpir owive chai^, ainl with as much speed 
as possible they vXHiki i^>t^ theiu anneal ami pn>Yided 
a l^arke to oarrie theiu proxSsiv^is & teini upon thent 
for all ixvasions but when they wien^ rea^b K> nwiv^h 
they had wwrvi to stay for yv enimy was as i>xxl as 
vanisheii and their wxHikl be no neerie." 




ciiAriKH wn 



THK. l\>lA>N> AT lis LOWKST KlU^ 

lo35-UH3 

l^lMio attontion "svas now luvomino- moiv than evoT 
attraotod to Now Kn^lanti as a ilosiraMo plaoo for 
onni:ration. it liavini:; Invn 
pointed ont with nnioli fon^e 
that tlio Tva.son whv tho sot- 
tlonionts in tlio sonth luul 
boon nnsnooossfnl was tho 
want oi i^ood harbois. In 
UkSS a stHH^nd lai'ixo Now 
F.ni:land oniigration boijan, 
this boini: t]nit*konod bv tho 
tronblos whioli privodod tlie 
broakino^ ont oi oivil war in 
tlio niotlior oonntrv. In tho 

sprinix of this year fonrtotMi vessels >ailod ilown the 
Tlianies witl\ omiixrants for the new oonntrv. >o maiiv 
loavinc Kngland that tlio aivhbishop of York was 
askod by some of his parishioners to pnt a stop to the 
oniii^ration. or the parislies wonki bo impoverished. 
IVonty-tivo thonsand |xx^pk^ had already sailed to 
Now V'ngland in ton years, and for two years this 
new emigration eontinned, eeasing only when the 
swiniX of tho politioal pondnlnin made tho Pnritans 




CHAKl.KS CHVUVOT 



212 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

begin to hope that their contest for poUtical freedom 
was to be successful. 

On account of the large exodus to Massachusetts 
in 1638, the price of cattle and grain so increased that 
the Plymouth colonists gave all their attention to 
pasturing cattle and growing corn. Trade with the 
Indians was neglected, and, when the Undertakers 
decided to give up their trading post on the Kennebec, 
some of the colonists, who "well fore-sawe that these 
high prices of corne and cattle would not long con- 
tinue, agreed with ye company for it and gave them 
about ye 6 parte of their gaines for it." Prosperity 
had now made the colonists desire to own more fertile 
farms elsewhere, and the dissatisfaction became so 
great that in June, 1638, there w^as a project to have 
the entire colony move in a body to a more desirable 
locality. The abandonment of this plan Bradford 
attributed to the direct intervention of God, for, at 
a time when some of the leading men of the colony 
were assembled in one of their houses discussing the 
question, an earthquake shook the town with such 
violence that those "without ye dores . . . could 
not stand without catching hoult of ye posts & pails 
yt stood next them ... as if ye Lord would hereby 
shew ye signes of his displeasure in their shaking a 
pieces and removalls one from an other." 

This same year, following the example of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay government, a general court was estab- 
lished, composed of the govej-nor, the council, and rep- 



COLONY AT ITS LOWEST EBB 213 

resentatives from the different towns, the governor 
and council being known as The Bench and the mem- 
bers from the towns first as The Committee, and 
afterwards as Deputies. 

In 1639, Bradford and Winslow for Plymouth, and 
Endicott and Stoughton for the Bay, were dele- 
gated to settle the disputed boundary line between 
the two colonies, as the Massachusetts Bay charter 
gave, as the southerly boundary of that grant, an 
east and west line three miles south of the Charles 
River and the Bay colonists contended that the term 
"river" included all its tributaries. This had led to a 
long dispute between the two colonies, as the claim of 
the Bay colony would have taken in what all conceded 
was part of the Plymouth territory. This commission 
finally agreed "that all ye marshes at Conahassett 
yt lye of ye one side of ye river next to Hingham shall 
belong to ye jurisdiction of Massachusetts Plantation 
and all ye marshes yt lye on ye other side of ye river 
next to Sitvate shall be long to ve iurisdiction of New 
Plimoth excepting 60 acres of marsh at ye mouth of 
ye river on Sityate side next to the sea." 

The principal towns of the Plymouth colony now 
were Plymouth, Duxbury, Scituate, Taunton, Sand- 
wich, Yarmouth, Barnstable, and Marshfield, and, 
as the colony had now become a " Comone-welth," 
it was voted by the General Court that Bradford should 
transfer to the colony the title to tbt land given him 
and his heirs in the grant of 1630 by the Council for New 



214 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Encrland. This transfer, which was made December 
eighth, 1640, included all the land that he held in trust, 
except a small tract at Yarmouth, another at Eastham, 
and a tract "from Sowansett river to Patucket river, 
with Cawsumsett Neck, which is ye cliiefe habitation 
of ye Indians & reserved for them to dwell upon, ex- 
tending into ye land 8 myles through ye whole breadth 
thereof." 

So many of the Plymouth colonists had by this time 
settled in other places that the town of Plymouth was 
fast losing its old vitality and seemed to be going to 
decay. Standish and Alden had already settled in 
Duxbury, Winslow had planned to settle in Marsh- 
field, and Brewster lived a large part of his time with 
his children in Duxbury- where he had a farm, so that of 
the old leaders Bradford alone remained. Trouble, too, 
had arisen in the church on the question of baptism. 
Charles Chauncy, who had come to them in 1638 as 
assistant pastor to John Raynor, was insisting that 
baptism should only be by immersion, for the reason 
that baptism by sprinkling was a modern invention. 
This question many of the clergy of other towns pub- 
licly debated with him, and, as he remained obdurate, 
letters were sent to the ministers of the Bay and to 
some in the Connecticut colony, asking them for 
written answers to Chauncy 's written arguments. 
These replies were also publicly discussed, and, although 
the church, yielding as far as it could, was willing to 
permit baptism by immersion to those who desired it. 



COLONY AT ITS LOWEST EBB 215 

Chauncy, notwithstanding that the American climate 
and personal health were against it, insisted upon 
baptism by immersion for all. He was, therefore, 
allowed to resign. In 1641 he moved to Scituate, 
and from there went to Cambridge, where in 1654 
he became the second president of Harvard College, 
which had been founded in 1636. 

The scarcity of English money had now made corn 
the medium of exchange in the colony, and it was not 
only levied for taxes, but was also used in paying the 
yearly town expenses. For example, the records of 
1642 read that " William Nelson be hyred to keep the 
cowes this yeare at the same wages he had last year 
which is 50 bushells of Indian corne"; and that 
"those in charge of the weir who draw and deliver 
the herring ... be payd either in money or corn at 
Harvest as such rate as it doth then passe at from 
man to man." 

Young cattle and goats were now kept in enclosed 
pastures, and from April until the middle of No- 
vember all other cattle except milch cows and oxen 
had to be kept in the town pasture outside the town. 
Wolves being now a serious annoyance, it was fre- 
quently voted at town meetings that bounties be paid 
for killing them, and in 1642 the General Court ordered 
twenty-seven wolf traps to be built, and, after being 
set in different parts of the colony, to be properly 
watched. 

The encroachments of the Dutch and French had 



216 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

now made war seeiu inevitable. In 1(U'2, becau.-e the 
people of Pl^^nollth believed that their seaport town 
Avas liable to be attacked by one of these nations and 
becanse there was also a growing fear of an Indian 
nprising. it was voted that the watch-house on Fort 
Hill be repaired, antl that each man in the town should 
furnish two eight-foot pieces of timber to finish the 
fortification which was being built. 

With the advent of the Long Parliament in England 
and the consequent downfall of Archbishop Laud, 
the Puritan exodus to New England ceased. This 
had vitallv afi'ected the trade of the Plymouth colony. 
The inflated prices had dropped to their former values, 
and those colonists who had made large investments 
in cattle and in farms for the pasturing of cattle and the 
cultivation of corn, now found themselves in straight- 
ened circumstances. ^lore than all. the religious 
enthusiasm which had always been the main stay of 
the Plymouth colonists had. under the strain of com- 
mercial prosperity, given way. ITiere were no longer 
anv new arrivals, and between this lack of new arrivals 
and the loss of trade those living in the town had 
bet^ome discouraged. The phenomenal growth of the 
Bav colony and the loss to Phmiouth of nearly all of its 
proijressive men. who had settled in other places, so 
disheartened those who were left that in 104-2 Brad- 
ford wrote. "Wickedness did grow and break forth. 
especiallv drunkenness and unclainness, not only 
incontinencie betsveen persons unmarried for which 



COLONY AT ITS LOWEST EBB 



217 



many both men aiul women have boon punishod 
sharply enongh bnt marriod porsons also. . . . But 
one roason mav bo that vo Divill mav carrio a greater 
spite against ye churches of Chri-^t and ye Gospel here." 
In the process of nation-making the colony had 
reached its lowest ebb, and in the few recorded events 
of this year the philosopher of history has another ex- 
ample of how in every community a few men of strong 
personalities unconsciously affect not only the feel- 
ino's and actions of weaker minds, but also the drift 
and tendencies of human thouuht and human actions. 




THE LAYING OX OF HANDS 



idfm ifM 



CHAPITER XXTTI 

THE NEW KXGL-\XD COXFKDER.\.CT 

UH3 

North of Now England the French, who had settled 
at Quebec m U>OS, had already begun to push the 

confines of New 
France southward. 
CT In 168^ Le Tour, 
the French governor, had said to AUerton of the Ph^n- 
outh colony: "The king of France claims the coast 
from Ca^H^ Sable to Cape Cod. I wish the English 
to understiuid that if they trade to the eastward of 
Pemaquid, I shall seize them. My sword is all the 
commission I shall show and when 1 want help I 
will pixxiuce my authority." Ever since then on 
account of boundary disputes and race hatred there 
had been more or less trouble between the English 
and the French. On the south there were similar 
boundary- disputes with the rapidly growing settle- 
ment of the Dutch at Manhattan, at tliis tune known 
as New Amsterdam. 

In 1G37 the settlers of Conne<.'ticut had unsuccess- 
fully tried to interest the Massachusetts Bay colonists 
in tlie formation of a federation of the New England 
colonies '^o^'er against the Dutch." To recover their 
lost fur trade, the Dutch had twice attempted to drive 
tlie English settlers from tlie Connecticut valley, and, 



NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERACY 219 

although both attempts had boon unsuccossful, the 
Amsterdam colonists were beginning to bo a people 
<liffi(iilt to resist. In 1()'J8, about a month after the 
Potjuot war, some wealthy London merohants ar- 
rived in Boston with their families, and, now that the 
Pequots were exterminated, settled at New Haven, 
which, t)wing to its good harbor, was well located 
for commerce. During the next year some of those 
people moved to Milford, near by, and another party, 
arriving from England, started a colony at Guild- 
ford. In l()k) Stamford was added to the group 
and in 1()43 these four colonies united into the Uopublic 
of New Haven. 

The friendship existing between the different Now 
England colonies was taking a closer and more definite 
form, now that the urgent need of a union between 
them was felt. The royal decree of 1G84, when the 
archbishops of York and Canterbury, with ten others, 
had been commissioned to regulate and govern the 
country, was not yet forgotten. The Long Parliament 
of 1(540 was still in session, and all believed that, if tlio 
king won, he would turn his attention to New Euirland 
which had become a place of refuge for his political 
opponents. Consequently, the same spirit which in 
1634 had made the Massachusetts colonists appropriate 
six hundred pounds for the purpose of defending 
themselves against the Indians, was now ready to 
assert itself in all the colonies by an alliance for the 
purpose of defending themselves not only against the 



220 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Indians, but also against the Dutch, the French, and 
even their own king, if necessary. 

With this idea in mind the four little states of Massa- 
chusetts, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut, 
having now an aggregate population of twenty-four 
thousand people, formed in 1643 a confederation 
which they called the United Colonies of New Eng- 
land, " it being a firm and perpetual league of friend- 
ship and amity for oft'ence and defence, mutual 
advice and succor upon all just occasions, both for 
preserving and propagating the truth and liberties 
of the Gospel and for their own mutual safety and 
welfare." This federation, although simple in form, 
was virtually the assumption of sovereignty over the 
people, and the colonists by joining together took a 
daring step and made a long stride towards inde- 
pendence. In forming this alliance, they had not 
taken the trouble to get permission of the home gov- 
ernment, but had done as they thought the occasion 
required, and were ready to defend their action, should 
it ever become necessary. In England the confederacy 
was naturally rewarded by the government with dis- 
trust, and Winslow, who was sent to London to defend 
it, pithily said, " If we in America should forbear to 
unite for offence and defence against a common enemy 
till we have leave from England, our throats might 
all be cut before the messenger would be half-seas 
through." 

On May twenty-ninth of the same year deputies 



NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERACY 221 

from the four colonies met in Boston, and Avith the 
adoption of articles of confederation the first federal 
union on the American continent was formed. By 
these articles each colony was to choose two church 
members as its commissioners, and these eight com- 
missioners were "to determine all affairs of war and 
peace, number of men for war, division of spoils, and 
whatever was gotten by conquest." No colony was 
to make war by itself, and in case of war the expenses 
and number of troops were to be proportioned among 
the four colonies according to their population. In all 
other matters each colony was to be as independent 
as before and to have entire control of its local affairs. 
In addition to these articles the deputies recom- 
mended that each General Court should see that 
every man keep by him a good gun and sword, one 
pound of powder, four pounds of shot, and suitable 
slow match and flints, which should be examined at 
least four times a year, that each colony should keep 
on hand a stock of powder, shot, and match; and that 
there should be in each plantation at least six training 
days each year. 

Of the twenty-four thousand people in the confedera- 
tion, fifteen thousand were Massachusetts Bay people, 
and, as there were only about three thousand persons in 
each of the other colonies, Massachusetts Bay had the 
heaviest burden to bear, both in furnishing soldiers 
and in the payment of war expenses. Although she 
did not have any more authority than the others in 



222 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

directing the affairs of the colonists, she often showed 
a domineering spirit, which, being resented by the 
others, often led to friction. Although the deputies 
had little executive power, the league proved to be of 
great value, as it not only awed the French at the 
north and the Dutch at the south, but postponed an 
uprising of the Indians, who ever after the Pequot 
war were conspiring against the English, the knowledge 
that the Narragansetts were in this conspiracy making 
the Plymouth settlers more than anything else decide 
to join the confederacy. 

With the formation of the confederacy the Plymouth 
colony, while it gained in security, lost its independence. 
It no longer was to shape history as a distinct com- 
munity, and its annals from this time were absorbed 
in the broader history of New England. Up to this 
time its history had been unique, and its traditions 
had been distinct from those of any of the other 
colonies. From the first it had carved out an inde- 
pendent course, which it had pursued with unflinching 
loyalty, and had stood for the widest conception 
then known of both civil and religious liberty. But 
now, with its wonderful individual career ended, its 
history became a part of the annals of secondary 
events, and whatever it was to accomplish was to be 
of little importance in shaping the destiny of the country 
compared to the events taking place in other sections 
which were more rapidly advancing in prosperity. 

A month before the articles of federation were signed 



NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERACY 223 

the most venerated man among the founders of the 
Plymouth Plantation died. On April tenth, "to the 
great sadness and mourning of them all, William Brew- 
ster passed to where beyond these voices there is 
peace." Of a cheerful spirit, of an humble and honest 
mind, of a peaceable disposition, understanding his own 
abilities and often overvaluing those of others, he had 
gained the love of all. Although a man of education 
and refinement, he had willingly worked in the fields 
when occasion required it, and in carrying out the work 
which he felt he had been called upon to do there was no 
sacrifice too great for him to make. Likewise, he had 
borne his part with those who had been persecuted for 
adopting the principles of Congregationalism, and, 
when the church was without a minister, had taught 
"both powerfully and profitably, so that many were 
brought to God by his ministry," his singular gift in 
prayer always touching the hearts and consciences of 
those who heard him. Of him Bradford wrote: "I 
should say something of his life if to say a little were not 
worse than to be silent. He was tender hearted and 
compassionate of such as were in miserie, but espe- 
cially of such as had been of good estate and ranke and 
were fallen into want & poverty either for goodness & 
religions sake or by ye injury & oppression of others." 
" Like a tired child, he fell asleep when his long day's 
work was over and without pang or gasping departed 
this life into a better." 



CHAPTER XXTV 

DEATH OF WIXSLOW, STAXDISH, AND BRADFORD 

KING Philip's war 

1644.1676 

In 1643, owing to rumors that the Indians were 
planning an uprising against all the white settlers of 
Massachusetts, the men of 
Plymouth were divided into 
watches, it being voted "that 
there be six men and a cor- 
porall for one watch which 
is to continue xxiiii hours 
from sunn sett to sunn sett." 
It was also voted that a coun- 
cil of war for the town be 
chosen, and that the house- 
holders provide sufficient 
OLIVER CROMWELL ^j-^j^g f^j. thcmselves and their 

servants. The next year it was voted that all the 
lead in the town should be melted into bullets; that 
in case of an alarm a certain number of men should 
go immediately to the Jones River to defend the town 
at that point; that others should go to the Eel River, 
and that others should assemble in the town to await 
orders; that in case the alarm should continue in either 
Plymouth, Duxbur}% or Marshfield, twenty men should 
go from Plymouth, tw^enty from Duxbury, and ten from 




KING PHILIP'S WAR 225 

Marshfield "to relieve the place where the alarum is 
so continued"; and that, if there were still need of 
assistance, a beacon fire should be lighted on Gallows 
Hill in Plymouth, on Captains Hill in Duxbury, and 
on the hill in Marshfield. 

In 1649, town lands were given to those townsmen 
Avho had no land, " to use as long as they please or their 
heairs after them but not to make sale thereof if they 
depart the towne but surrender them upp unto the towne 
agayne at their departure." The same year a commit- 
tee of seven was appointed " to use their best descretion 
and endeavors that the poor may bee comfortable pro- 
vided for by contriving and setting them in such ways 
and courses as may most probably conduce thereunto 
and also to see yt the provisions of the poor bee not un- 
essessaryly Imbezeled, missspent and made away with 
in the summer season before the winter and times of 
hard things come and for such poore as are aged and 
decripped as they cannot work." As the wolves had 
again become troublesome, it was voted in 1650 "to 
pay fifteen shillings to every one who should bring in the 
head or skin of a wolf, and that any Indian who would 
kill an old wolf should receive two coats and for a young 
wolf an axe or hatchet." 

In 1655, Edward Winslow, the ablest of the four 
great men of the Plymouth colony, died. Three years 
before his death he had gone to England as the agent of 
the Bay colony to uphold her rights before the Com- 
missioners of Plantations, and particularly to oppose 



22C^ OVn PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

any action bv the government on the question of appeal 
from the colonial courts to the courts of England. Here 
he had presented his case with such ability that Crom- 
well, then Dictator, appointed him chairman of a joint 
English and Dutch connnission to award damages for 
the destruction of English vessels in neutral Denmark 
during the war between England and Holland. In this 
work he showed such marked ethciency that in U)55 he 
was placed by Cromwell at the head of a commission 
sent to take the Spanish West Indies, but. owing to the 
jealousy of the other tvvo commissioners — General 
Venable commanding the soldiers and Admiral Penn 
having charge of the fleet — the expedition was a failure. 
From there the fleet sailed to the Island of Jamaica, 
which was easily conquered, but, before reaching Ja- 
maica, Winslow died of fever and was buried at sea, a 
salute of forty-tAvo guns being fired in honor of his high 
rank of "grand commissioner." Thus died at the age 
of sixty-one the youngest of the great leaders of the 
Pilcrims, a man whose abihtv and character were of 
no common order. Of his four years' absence from 
tlie Plymouth colony, Bradford wrote, " it had been 
much to the weakening of this government." 

During the following year, l(>o(>, Myles Standish 
died at his farm in Duxbury at the age of seventy-three. 
He had left the Old World for adventures in the Xew. 
and began his career in the new country by helping 
tlie sick and dying. Under all circumstances he was 
kival and steadfast to the interests of the colonv and 



KING PHILIP'S WAR 227 

submissive to tlie voice of the people. For thirty- 
five years he had been the iniHtary coranuinder of 
the cok)ny, no expedition being too dangerous and no 
work too humble for him to undertake, and at different 
times he was explorer, trader, arbitrator, town treas- 
urer and magistrate. With his knowledge of the 
Indian language, in which he excelled all the others, 
he had been especially valuable both in times of peace 
and war. In the vanguard of civilization in America 
no man proved more useful than he, and it is doubt- 
ful if the Plymouth settlement would have been suc- 
cessful without his energy and courage. In the mak- 
ing of New England, the part that fell to him carried 
with it a romance distinctive to itself. Not being 
a member of the church of the Pilgrims, his mission 
was not to establish Congregationalism, but to crystal- 
lize the settlement into a commonwealth. 

In the spring of the following year, 1657, Bradford, 
the last of the four great leaders, died. With his death 
there was profound mourning throughout the United 
Colonies, for he was regarded "as a common blessing 
and a father to them all." Of him Cotton Mather 
wrote : " He was a person for study as well as action, and 
attained unto a most notable skill in languages. The 
Dutch tongue was become almost as vernacular to him 
as the English; the French tongue he could also man- 
age; the Latin and Greek he had mastered, but the 
Hebrew most of all he studied because, as he said, he 
would see with his own eyes the ancient oracles of God 



228 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

in their native beauty." He believed himself an in- 
strument of God in establishing a more liberal religion 
in the New World, and that in all times of danger a 
special Providence directed and protected both him and 
his co-workers. During his life he had shown a liberal- 
ity in advance of the superstitions of the times, and 
from the day when the handful of convalescents had 
fired their matchlocks over the grave of Carver he had 
been their leader, willingly doing his share of manual 
labor and always ready to assume his part of respon- 
sibility in directing the policy of the colony. From the 
time of Carver's death in 1621, he had been governor 
except the three years when Winslow held the office 
and the two years when Prence was chosen. From 
the time when he first began the administration of the 
affairs of the colony its history is his, and in an eminent 
degree he was the moving spirit of the enterprise. His 
conduct towards the Indians was marked with such 
wisdom, energy, and kindness that he soon gained a 
powerful influence over them, and the colonists — not 
merely his first fellow Pilgrims, but all that came after- 
wards — so respected him that there was no necessity 
of his assuming his authority and power even with the 
most heedless. In addition to his being governor of 
the colony for thirty-one years he was for five years the 
Plymouth commissioner of the Colonial Confederacy 
and for two years its president. Modest about his 
own ability, he was firm in whatever he undertook, yet, 
because he was always courteous to others, he won 



KING PHILIP'S WAR 229 

the love of the weak and the respect of those who 
opposed him. Surely, it must have been more than 
chance, that in that shipload of yeomen who were cast 
like waifs upon the shores of Cape Cod, there were such 
men as Brewster, Winslow, Standish, and Bradford. 

In 1660 Charles II. became king. From the forma- 
tion of the confederacy in 1643 
up to this time the New Eng- 
land colonists had not been 
molested by the English gov- 
ernment. In 1664, however, 
a commission was sent to 
Boston, especially charged to 
enforce the execution of the 
Navigation Act passed in 
1660 by which "no mer- 
chandise shall be imported 
into the plantation but in 
English vessels, navigated by Englishmen under 
penalty of forfeiture." They were also to enforce 
religious worship according to the laws of Eng- 
land, and to inquire into the administration of 
justice, the treatment of the Indians, and the system 
of education carried on. This commission, which re- 
mained a year, did nothing, however, except to leave 
behind in the minds of the people a feeling of irritation 
and the fear of a future attack upon their liberties. 

In 1660 Massasoit, the lifelong friend of the Pilgrims, 
died, leaving two sons, Wamsutta and Metacom, who 




CHARLES II. 



230 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

had been christened at Plymouth as Alexander and 
Philip. In 1662 Alexander, now chief of the ^Yam- 
panoags, was summoned before the General Court at 
Plymouth on a charge of plotting with the Narragan- 
setts against the English. Of this charge he proved 
his innocence, but before leaving Plymouth suddenly 
died. Philip, believing that his brother had been poi- 
soned, now became a bitter enemy of the whites, and 
secretly began conspiring against them. He had read 
in their faces the doom of his race if his people were not 
wise enough to drive the settlers from their country. 
The white men's clearings and fences on the land 
lavishly given to them by his father or sold to them 
by other Indians for a few pots and kettles, blankets, 
and hatchets, made him realize that they had made an 
absolute surrender of their territory instead of retaining 
a joint occupancy. He also reahzed that planting did 
not go with hunting, and that domestic cattle and wild 
game could not roam about together. 

For ten years Philip quietly matured hir. plans. Fre- 
quently during this time there were made at Plymouth 
complaints of acts of lawlessness on the part of his 
people, and Philip himself was often charged with, 
plotting with the Narragansetts and the Nipmucks 
against the colonists, and more than once was 
summoned to appear before the Plymouth officials. By 
1670 these accusations had become so frequent that 
the men of Plymouth thought it time to strike, but 
were held in check by the Federal Commissioners. 



KING PHILIP'S WAR 231 

In the spring of 1675, however, a Massachusetts 
Bay Indian having divulged to the governor of Plymouth 
that Philip was again plotting against the colony, it 
was voted " to presse eleven able sufficient men to goe 
forth as soldiers against the Indians our enimies," 
also "that there shalbe forth with a fortification built 
upon the fort Hill att Plymouth, to be one hundred 
foot square the pallasadoes to be 10 foot and one- 
halfe large to be sett 2 foot & an halfe in the Ground 
. . . every man to doe three foot of the said fence of 
fortification . . . and there shalbe a watch house created 
within said ffence or fortification and that the three 
pieces of ordinance shalbe planted within the said 
ffence or fortification." Not long after this the Indian 
who betrayed Philip was murdered, and in June three 
Wampanoag Indians who were convicted of the murder 
were put to death at Plymouth. 

A few days afterwards, on June twenty -first, a mes- 
senger on horseback went clattering over Boston Neck 
with a letter from the Plymouth colony stating that 
at daybreak two houses on the outskirts of Swanzey, 
a village near Philip's territory, had been attacked. 
This letter was as follows : — 

Honrd Sr. 

This morning at break of the day I had a post from 
Swansy informeing that phillip the Sachem and his 
men are now in action and did yesterday about noon 
assault two of the English housen that were next them, 
forsed out our people and possessed them selves of 



232 OUR PLYiAIOUTH FOREFATHERS 

the housen, and were marching up with their body 
toward Swansy, with their drums beating, as if they 
intended a present assaulte, wee feare that place may 
bee soerly distressed before they can have rehefe; yet 
the post tells mee these men were very cherf ull ; I have 
ordered seventy men to march this day from Tanton 
and Bridgewater for their first relief, and hope to have 
a hundred and Fifty more on a Martch to morrow: 
Wee are informed that the Narrigansets have 400 men 
in arms, intended for phillips asistance, the Nepmucks 
also are exsp[ec]ted too by him this day; our great 
request to your hour is that your Comand and Force 
also may bee improved (if need bee) to secuer us from 
troble from those Indians that apertayne to your Colony 
or are under your protection as wee Suppose the Nar- 
rigansets and Nepmeuks are; if wee Can have faire 
play with our owne wee hope with the help of god wee 
shall give a good accompt of it in a few dayes: there 
hath bine no ocation given by us, no threat, nor un- 
kindeness, but their owne pride and insolency alone 
hath moved them to give us this troble; 

Si" I Cannot inlarge; I intreat you to Excuse the 
rudeness of my lines and to grant a word of answer by 
the post; I subscribe, S^ 

your loving Neighbr and humble 

Sl"vt JOSIAH WiNSLOW 
Marshfeild, June 21. 75. 

With this assault the people of the neighborhood had 
fled to the block house in the village pursued by the 
Indians who followed them to the bridge, where forty 
settlers had posted themselves and prevented an attack 
upon the . village. That same day messengers from 



JC.7 V 



J r.. . .„,.„„ 















'^^ 















ii^ 






FACSIMILE COPY OF LKTTKR NOTIFYING BOSTON OF ATTACK ON SWANZEY 



234 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Plymouth were sent to demand the culprits from Philip. 
A few days afterwards several other houses not far 
from Swanzey were plundered, and the men, women, 
and children killed and barbarously dismembered. 
Troops were now sent from Boston and Plymouth 
against the Wampanoags, and, when they advanced up 
the strip of land on Mount Hope Neck to Philip's set- 
tlement, they found the wigwams deserted, and Philip 
and his people with their canoes, arms, and provisions 
gone. A few days later the news came that Philip had 
swooped down upon Dartmouth, Middleborough, and 
Taunton, burned the houses, flayed some of the settlers 
alive, impaled some on pointed stakes, and roasted 
others over slow fires. 

This onslaught was the beginning of a two years* 
deadly struggle between the white settlers of Massa- 
chusetts and the Indians. In July, Philip, driven from 
the eastern part of the state, went to the Nipmuck 
country on the Connecticut, and in August and Sep- 
tember, the scattered villages of Brookfield, Deerfield, 
Northfield, and Hadley, which were then frontier 
towns, were attacked, Deerfield and Northfield being 
practically destroyed. Of the soldiers who went to the 
relief of Northfield thirty-six were killed, and their 
heads placed on long poles planted by the roadside. 
At Deerfield a large quantity of unthrashed wheat had 
been left, and in September the farmers of that section 
went with their wagons to get the ripened grain, escorted 
by ninety of probably the best drilled troops in the 



KING PHILIP'S WAR 235 

Massachusetts Bay colony, known as the "Flower of 
Essex." In the evening with their loaded wagons they 
started back, and at seven o'clock the next morn- 
ing, September twelfth, while they were fording a shal- 
low stream, they were suddenly fired upon by seven 
hundred Nipmucks hidden along the banks, only eight 
of all who had started escaping to tell the tale of that 
"black and fatal day . . . the sadest that ever befel 
New England." 

The situation had now become desperate. In the 
beginning of the war the Narragansetts had played fast 
and loose with the English, giving aid to the Indians 
whenever success came to Philip or his allies, and 
claiming to be friends of the whites when success came 
to them. As it was evident that, unless crushed, this 
tribe would soon openly espouse Philip's cause, the 
Federal Commission in the fall of 1675 enlisted five 
hundred and twenty-seven men from the Massachusetts 
Bay colony, one hundred and fifty-eight from the 
Plymouth colony, and three hundred from the Connecti- 
cut colony, for the purpose of attacking their pali- 
saded fortress, which was located in the outskirts of 
what is now South Kingston. This fort, covering six 
acres of rising ground in the middle of a swamp, had an 
almost impregnable position. Its walls built of sap- 
lings were twelve feet in thickness, and the single en- 
trance to the fort could only be reached by walking 
along the trunk of a felled tree, this rude bridge being 
guarded by a block house in which Indians were al- 
ways stationed. 



KING PIIITJP'S WAR 237 

On the night of December eighteenth the Httk^ 
colonial army of a thonsand men slept in a field eight- 
een miles away "withont other blanket than a moist 
fleece of snow," the Narragansetts, e(|nippe(l witli 
nmskets in the nse of which they were skilfnl, 
waiting for them in their fort. The next morning, 
Snnday, as the colonial army approached the strong- 
hold, a volley of nnisketry from the block honse was 
fireil at them, while within the fort were not less than 
two thonsand warriors ready for the conflict. Then 
followed a desperate strnggle, which soon became a. 
hand-to-hand conflict, the soldiers, maddened by the 
sight of their dead companions, making assanlt after 
assanlt npon the entrance, only to be driven back by 
the mere weight of nnmbers. While this fighting was 
going on, the (^onnecticnt troops discovered a path at 
the rear of the fort over the partly frozen swamp, and 
by climbing on each other's shonlders were able to 
scale the rampart. Once inside, on a sndden the wig- 
wams were ablaze, and the flames at onee encircled the 
whole space in a sea of fire. The huhans, now terri- 
fied and made desperate by the whistling shots and the 
shouts of connnand, fought with recklessness, the 
slaughter that followed on both sides continuing the 
rest of that Sunday afternoon. At dusk those of the 
Narragansetts who were still alive fell back to a neigh- 
btiring swamp, and the colonial trtH>ps, ck)nbting their 
ability to maintain themselves so remote from support, 
after burning the tubs of corn found in the fort and 



23S OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

taking with thorn the muskets which the Xipmueks had 
captured at Deertield, retreated to Wickt'ord. eleven 
miles away. Tliis was the most desperate struggle of its 
kind ever fought on American soil. In the encounter 
not less than a thousand Indians were slain, and of the 
English nearly one-quarter of the whole number were 
either killed or wounded. 

Although the power of the Xarragansetts was now 
broken, Canonehet. their chief, detiantly said. "We will 
fight to the last man rather than become the servants 
of the English." X'early all the tribes had now joined 
in the uprising, and on February tenth, lti7t>, the Nip- 
mucks under the command of Philip attacked Lan- 
caster, another of the frontier towns. On the twenty- 
first, Medfield, another frontier town, was attacked 
and twenty of its inhabitants were murdered. On the 
tvventv-fourth. \Vey mouth was also attacked, and a 
few days later Middleborough and Bridgewater, many 
houses in each place being burned. On March second 
Groton. another frontier town, was almost wholly 
destroyed, and the same day an attack was made on 
Plymouth, where seventeen houses were burned. On 
March twenty-eighth Si'ituate was attacked and 
nineteen houses were burned. From here Captain 
Pierce, of Siutuate, with fifty soldiers who had pursued 
the Indians, was drawn by Canonehet into an ambush 
near Paw tucket and his whole couuuand killed, this 
being the greatest calamity which befell the Plymouth 
colonv duriui^ the war. Ten davs later Canonehet 



KING PHILIP'S AVAR 239 

was capturoci by a Connecticut company, and upon 
being turned over to the INIohegans, who were allies 
of the Connecticut colonies, was tomahawked. 

The tide now turned. In ^lay, three hundred 
Xipnuicks were slaughtered at Turners Falls, crushing 
that tribe. In June, four hundred Narragansetts were 
.slain in four sharp fights in Connecticut. These skir- 
mishes marked the beginning of the end. Soon re- 
ports of the destitution of the Indians began to come to 
the colonists, and, when in July the colonists made 
offei's of peace, nearly all the Indians surrendered. 
Deserted on every side. King Philip with a few faithful 
followers now returned to ]\[ount Hope Neck. Here 
he was driven into a swamp by some Plymouth troops 
under the command of Captain Benjamin Church, 
where on August twelfth he was shot by a friendly 
Indian, and "fell upon his face in the mud and water 
with his gun under him . . . upon which the whole 
army gave loud huzzas." Upon his death Captain 
Church gave orders that "For as much as he had 
caused numy an Englishman's body to be unburied 
and to rot above ground, not one of his bones shall be 
buried,'* and in pursuance of this command Philip's 
body was quartered, and his head taken to Plymouth, 
where it w as exposed on the end of a pole, while the 
meeting-house bell summoned the townspeople to a 
special service of thanksgiving. 

During this war the destiny of one hundred and live 
thousand New England people had hung in the balance. 



240 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Besides manv women and children, nearly a thousand 
Massachusetts settlers had been killed, and there was 
hardly a family that had not lost some member. Of 
the ninety towns in the tAvo Massachusetts colonies one 
third had been attacked at one time or another, and of 
these, thirteen had been destroyed and the others greatly 
damaged. Never during the war. however, did the 
colonists ask assistance of England, for. fearful of Eng- 
lish complications, they preferred to tight their own 
battles rather than to give the king an excuse for main- 
taining royal troops in Xew Eiigland. Consequently, 
it was many years before the heavy war debt was paid, 
the debt of Plymouth exceeding the value of all the per- 
sonal property of the colonists. 

From this time the Indians no longer tigured in the 
history of Xew England except M'hen. in later years, 
they became allies of the French in their raids upon the 
frontiers. With the close of the war most of the In- 
dians who were taken prisoners, including the women 
and children, were sold into AVest Indian slavery, 
the records of Plymouth showing that more than five 
hundred Indians were sold from there alone. Even 
Philip's wife and son — an Indian princess and her 
child — were taken from the wild freedom oi a Xew 
F^.ngland forest, and sold as slaves to gasp under the 
lash beneath the blazing sun of the tropics. 

The Indians liad fought a relentless war. making a 
life-and-death struggle for the lives of their squaws and 
pappooses and for the mounds that covered the bones 



KING PHILIP'S WAR 



241 



of their ancestors. Now with the hipse of time one is 
abU^ to analyze tiieir motives without toeing warped by 
the atrocities and cruelties thev were forced to inflict. 
For a quarter of a century Philip was stigmatized as 
a monster accursed of God and num, yet in the light 
of history one cannot but look upon this war as a just 
one from the Indian viewpoint, and upon Philip as 
the patriot of his race. 




THANKSGIVING SKKVIOKS WHK.X TUK COLONISIS l.l.AHNKD OF TUK 
DEATH OF KING I'HILIP 



CILVPTER XXV 



PLYMOVTU'S KKVISAI. TO lU: TUK SUAVK OF ANY NATION' 

I o 7 o 1 7 7 o 

F.nirhnid's war with tho Dutch boiiii: now oiuiod, the 
irovorniuont had time to ^ivo attention to it> Amorioan 

colonies, and the ** Lords of 
Trade." as they weiv fanul- 
iarly ealled. were soon sitting 
in council upon the actions 
of the obstinate Massachu- 
setts colonists. Reports havinc 
come to them that the nav- 
igation laws were not ob- 
served: that ships from other 
V. u r o p e a n countries w ere 
trading at Boston without 
paying duties to England 
on their cargi.xv'^; that money was coined at a colo- 
nial mint: and that Chun.>h of Kngland men were 
denied the right to vote. To investigate these reports. 
Edward Randolph was sent over. He was also given 
instructions to ascvrtain tho sentiment of the people 
of the Kennebtv and l^scataqua towns towards the 
Massachusetts Ray government, as well as of such 
otlier towns as were not in sympathy with the existing 
form of ijovernment in Boston. 




.1 VMV-! \\. 



rLYMOUTH'S lU^naiSAL 243 

Tn 1()7(), u\Hm Kaiulolph's arrival in lioslon, tluMi a 
t(nvii of five thousand iiihahilaiils, Jiis inauiuM-s and 
actions so stinrd up ilio people llial llioy wore uncixil 
to him. Jn KiTO, wlioii Ihc Iving appointed liini coIKh-- 
tor of customs willi insi ructions to enforce the naAMVa- 
tion laws. Governor Leveret I, to wliom he rc^id liis com- 
mission, ke})t his peaked hat on when the si<;nature of 
the kin<;'s cliief secretary of state was read, and asked 
with careless contempt," Wlio is tliis Henry Coventry ?" 
Of tliis incident llandolpli did not fail to write the king, 
and, while he was waiting to hear from his report 
to the government, he spent his time intriguing with 
those in 15oston who were dissatistied with the domi- 
nant parly and in forming what later became the 'J'ory 
parly. 

In 1()8() and KJS'J, the Plymouth colony unsuccess- 
fully petitioned the home government for a royal charter^ 
as its only legal existence was the Tierce patent of 1()21 
and the Warwick patent of 1()30. In 1084 came the 
long-expected blow from the English government — the 
beginning of New England's darkest days — when the 
Massachusetts Bay charter was annulled by the Court 
of Chancery, the General Court abolished, and Joseph 
Dudley, the son of Winthrop's associate, who had be- 
come the leader of the Tory party, was made president 
of all the New England colonies except Plymouth, with 
full authority to govern them. 

In 1085, upon the death of Charles II., his son James 
II. became king, and in 1080 this arrogant monarchy 



244 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 




SIR POMUND AXDROS 



wishing to abolish all local 
self-governments in the Ameri- 
can colonies, appointed Sir 
Edmund Andros governor of 
New England. Andros made 
his headquarters at Boston, and 
during his despotic rule the 
Episcopal Church, after nuicli 
bitter opposition, was estab- 
lished in the town. Arbitrary 
taxes were imposed, encroach- 
nients were made upon com- 
mon lands, and nothing was allowed to be printed 
bv the press without permission. With the Plym- 
outh colony Andros had no trouble, for the 
colony had no royal charter, although the town 
voted "not to deed Clark's Island to the Crown 
as he had demanded." This arbitrary rule of 
Andros lasted until 1089, 
when the Stuart kings were 
overthrown, and William. 
Prince of Orange, was made 
king. 

When the news of the 
landing of the new king in 
England reached Boston, a 
signal fire was lighted on 
Beacon Hill, and a meeting 
called to be held in the 




PLYMOUTH'S REFUSAL 



245 




SIR WILLIAM PIIIl'S 



Town House. To this meet- 
ing Andros was summoned, 
and, upon his trying to 
escape from Boston in wo- 
man's clothes, he was seized 
and made a prisoner. Soon 
after this the old charter 
was restored. Later, in 169^2, 
the king sent over a new 
charter, by which the ^Lissa- 
chusetts Bay colony and the 
Plymouth and Maine colo- 
nies were united under a single government. By this 
charter the governor was to be appointed by the king, 
and Sir William Phips, a New England man, who on 
account of his successful expedition against the French 
in Nova Scotia had risen into prominence and been 
knighted, received the commission of governor. In all 

other respects the charter 
gave to the colonies the same 
government as the old one, 
the rights of the people and 
the full enjoyment of relig- 
ious liberty being guaranteed. 
In 1G94, the House of Rep- 
resentatives of the United 
Colonies made a formal 
declaration of their civil 
rights, in which they claimed 

QUEEN ANNE 




246 OUR PLYMOrTH FOREFATHERS 




solo authority to tax the peo- 
ple and the right to make 
ail laws for the govemment 
of the Province. In 170*^, 
King AiYilliam was killed by 
being thrown from his horse, 
and Anne, the daughter of 
James II., the last of the 
Stuarts, became queen. 
Under her weak rule the col- 
onies were not troubled by 
the home government, her 
intimate friend, Sarah Churchill, the Duches* of 
Marlborough, having such an influence over her 
that it was pi^pularly said. ''Queen Anne reigns, 
but Queen Sanih governs.'' In 1704. the French 
with their Indian allies attacked Deerfield and 
Lancaster. That same year Colonel Pc ^ - ^^i Chiirvh 
of the Plymouth cx>lony, who 
was now settled at Mount Hope 
Neck, made a successful ex- 
j^Hxlition against the Maine 
Indians and the French set- 
tlers in Acadia. 

Upon the death of Queen 
Anne in 1714, the AVhigs in 
Parliament prot^laimed George 
of Hanover king almost before 
the countr\' knew what was 




ri.NMornrs Ki:rrsAi 



_M' 



liapponiiiL:,-. aiul iliirin^- hi> ivi>;n [\\cvc ^wvc davs ot" 
poaco in I'n^laiul and the ioK>nios. I'pon hi» tlcath 
in IT'JT, his son, Cioor^o 1 1 .. succoodod him. ^^ Ihlo 
ho ^^as kin^- canio tho ^^ar oi [\\c Kni:li>h a«;ain>t Iho 
Kivnoh in C'anada. Massaihusotts in 17,')(> t'urnisliini;- 
sovon thousauil troops undor 
tho oonnnand of John Win- 
slow, ot" rivnionth. 

In 17(U), npon tho doatli of 
CioiM-^o II.. his i^randson, 
(looriio III., booanio kini^-. and 
in 17t>:>, dnrin*;- his rci^n, 
peace Nvas declared between 
France and Knuland. This 
ended tlie war in Canada, 
wliich had si> impeded the 
growth o{ New Knoland that ^'^'^^'^ ^'^■ 

its weahli and popnhition were praiticallv the same as 
N\ hen the war he^an. 

In ^larch, 17(k>, the English pHnernment passed its 
famons Stamp Act, which at (Mice aronsed such bitter 
t>ppositi(Mi in all the colonies that a circular letter was 
>ent bv the Massachusetts Hay colony io the other 
colonies, asking- them to unite in remonstrating against 
this nnjust taxation. In September. \1(1'k the House 
of Ueproentatives passed its famous Hill o( Rights, 
and the town o{ Hlymouth. to show its approval o( this 
action, in Octt^ber sent to its representative to the 
Cieneral (\nirt the following- letter; 




24.S OUR rLYMOUTH FOREFATHEK:< 

"We have evinc'd our lA\valty to our Kiiii;, our 
affet'tion to the Brittish Government and our ^lother 
Country on all occasions. . . . Our Treasuiv is exhausted 
in the service of our Mother Countrv. our Trade and 
all the numerous Branches of Business Dej^)endent 
on it Reduced <S: almost Ruined By severe acts of 
Parliament ^' now we are threatened with being 
Loaded with Internal Taxes without our own consent 
or the voice of a sino;le Representative in Parliament 
& with Being Deprived of that darlin Privilege of an 
Englishman. Trial By his Peers. . . . This place. Sir, 
was at First the Asylum of Eiherty «5s: we hope will 
ever be Preserved sacred to it. though it was thou 
no more than a Forlorn Wilderness inhabited only 
by savage men &^ Beast, to this place, our Fathers 
(whose memories be ReverM^i Possessed of the Prin- 
ciples of Liberty in their Purity. Disdaining slavery 
Fled, to enjoy those Priviledges which they had an 
umloubted Right to but were Deprived of By the 
Hands of Violence v^- (Oppression in their native 
country. We sir. their Posterity, the Freeholders 
and other Inhabitants of this Town lx\gally assem- 
bled For that Pur[X)se, possessed of the same senti- 
ments «5v: Retaining the same ardour for Liberty, think 
it our indispensible duty on this occasion to express 
to you these our Sentiments of the Stamp Act and its 
Fatal consequences For Relief. We Likewise, to avoid 
Disgracing the memories of our Ancestors as well as 
the Repixiaches of our Consciences c^v: curses of Pos- 
terity. Recommend it to you to obtain if possible in 
the ilonorable House of Representatives of the Pixnince 
the Full and Explicit assertion of our rights .&: to 
have the same entred on their Publick Records that 
all Generations vet to come mav be iH-tnvinced that 



PLYMOUTH'S REFUSAL 249 

wc Iiavc not only a just sense of our ri<i^]its and Tvihertys 
})ut tliat we never (with Submission to Devine IVovi- 
(Jence) will be the slaves of any power on Earth." 

In Boston the enforcement of the Stamp Act had 
resulted in riots and violence against the officers of 
the Crown, and on January sixteenth, 17()(), the peo[)le 
of Plymouth met to " Express theire esteem of & Grati- 
tude To the Town of Boston for their spirited con- 
duct." On September nineteenth, 17()8, at a town 
meeting held at Plymouth "a letter from the Select- 
men of lk)ston to the Selectmen of this Town for 
which reason this meeting was Called, was red which 
was in the words following viz." 

"Boston, Sq)tcmber yc Uth, 17G8. 

*' Gentlemen, — You are allready too well accjuainted 
with the mallencholly A very Alarming Circumstances 
to which this Province as well as America in General 
is now Reduced. Taxes, Ecjually Detrimental to the 
Commercial Interest of the Parent Country ^' her 
Colonies, are Imposed upon the people without their 
Consent . . . The concern & perplexity into which 
these things have thrown the people have been Greatly 
Aggravated by a late Declaration of his Exalancy 
Governor Bernard that one or more regiments may 
soon be Expected in this province. The Design of 
which Troops is in Everys ones Apprehension nothing 
short of Enforcing l)y military power the Execution 
of x\cts of Parliament in the forming of which the 
Colonies have not and cannot have any Constitutional 
Influence, this is one of the Greatest Distresses to 
which a free people can be reduced. . . . Deprived 



250 OUR PLYxAIOUTH FOREFATHERS 

of the Counsell of a General assembly in this Dark 
and Difficult Season, the Royal people of this province 
will, we are persuaded, immediately perceave the pro- 
priety & utility of a committee or convention & the 
Sound and AYholesome Advice that may be Expected 
from a number of Gentlemen Chosen by themselves 
& in whom they may repose the Greatest Confidence 
... to meet so Early as ye 22nd of this Instant." 

Pursuant to this request, the town of Plymouth voted 
" to choose two men to attend & act for them at Faneuil 
Hall in Boston . . . with such as may be sent to 
joyn them from the Several Towns in this Province 
in order that Such matters may be Consulted & ad- 
vised as his majestys vService & the Peace & Safety 
of his Subjects in this Province may Require." 

The crisis between Great Britain and her American 
colonies was now fast approaching. In 1770, Plym- 
outh voted "to Endeavor to Encourage & Support 
the Generous Efforts of the Merchants in Boston and 
other seaport towns in the Sacrafice they have made 
to the publick Good by the agreement for the non 
Importation of Goods. . . . That the thanks of this 
town be Given to the town of Boston for the firm & 
Spirited Opposition they have made to the Attempts 
of Tyranny & Oppression to enslave us at the Expense 
of their Interest & their Blood. . . . That we will at 
all times Support & Encourage the non-importation 
agreement of the Merchants & hold in the highest 
Detestation those who Continue Audaciouslv to Im- 



PLYMOUTH'S REFUSAL 251 

port Contrary to said agreement. . . . That a Com- 
mittee of Inspection be choose to Enquire from time 
to time if any person among us Shall directly or 
Indirectly Trade or be Concerned with the very few 
who now stand recorded by a vote of the towne of 
Boston of ye 23rd Instant as perferring theire own 
to the publick Advantage of their Country by taking 
Advantage of the Generous Self denial of their fellow 
Citizens & Continueing to Import Goods." 

On November twenty-fourth, 1772, at a town meet- 
ing duly called " a petition of one hundred Inhabitants 
of the town of Plimouth was red & is in the words 
following" 

"To THE Selectmen of the town of Plimouth 

''Gentlemen, — We the subscribers, free holders & 
other Inhabitants of the town of Plimouth, deeply 
Impressed with a sense of the unhappy situation this 
country is reduced to by the violation of our rights 
and the repeated attacks made upon our constitutions, 
and feeling that concern and Indignation which should 
animate every Honest Breast on recollecting the once 
Happy circumstances of this country, & now in con- 
stant viewing the present state of it where we are 
deprived of the rights of nature and a Constitution 
purchased with the blood of our Ancestors and the 
fair inheritance transmitted us by them, is become the 
prey of Vultures & Harpies who rest on the spoil of 
it, alarmed as we have been from time to time with 
taxation without our consent, with extention of Ad- 
miralty Jurisdictions, with the Quartering of soldiers 
here & the Lawless Insolence & murders thev have 



1 



252 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 



Committed and been supported in, with the taking 
from us the defence of our Capitol against a foreign 
enemy and Garrisoning it with regular troops in whom 
we can place no confidence, with the contemptuous 
& Unconstitutional treatment of our General Court 
from time to time, and with many other Grievances 
from the memorable era of the Stamp Act down to the 
Independence of a Governor, we have nevertheless 
pleased ourselves with some Hopes that Justice or 
Common sence might one day take place in the Ad- 
ministration and releive us from our Dificulties before 
the System of Slavery was fully compleated. But the 
last step taken by the administration by providing 
salaries for the Judges of the Superior Court has left 
us without any expectation of that kind, by fixing the 
last seal to the Despotism they have so Long endeav- 
ored to Establish here. We therefore have reason to 
Consider our situation as very Dangerous if not Des- 
perate and such as requires the united attention and 
wisdom of the whole to prevent being irretrievably 
fixed on us & our posterity. We therefore Desire 
to Call a town meeting as soon as Conveniently may 
be that the Inhabitants of this town may unitedly 
take this matter into consideration and pursue such 
steps as may be proper on such an occasion and at 
such a Day as this is." 

Pursuant to this petition a meeting was called at 
which it was voted to choose two committees: "1st 
a committee to report to the town what it is best for 
the town to do & to report a Draft of such votes as 
they may think it best for them to come into. 2rid^ 
a Standing Committee of Communication & corre- 



PLYMOUTH'S REFUSAL 253 

spondence to be chosen freely from time to time to 
communicate & correspond with the town of Boston 
and any other town on the subject of our present 
Difficulties & of the measures proper to be taken." 
On December fourteenth the committee chosen 
reported "The Impatience and Indignation natural 
to the oppressed, the Honor & resentment natural 
to freemen who know the value of their rights & see 
them not only repeatedly attacked but torn from 
them with every mark of Insult as well as Injustice, 
the pain natural to the virtuous & vigilant who see 
the coldness & Indifference of some & the Prostitu- 
tion and servillety of others, who Inherit with them 
the prise and reward of the Sufferings and blood of 
their Fathers, have more than once called the united 
attention of the Inhabitants of the town of Plymouth 
to a Consideration of the unhappy circumstances of 
their country but never upon an occasion more alarm- 
ing than the present, when, to every other species of 
Injustice & Insult, to every other stride of Despotism 
& Tyranny is added, as we hear & have abundant 
reason to believe, a provision made for the support 
of the Judges of the Superior Court of this Province 
in a way different from usuall & constitutional 
method by the free Grants of the people, which has 
a Tendency to Poison the Fountain of Justice upon 
the purity of which & the streams that Issue from them 
depend the happiness & peace of a Society & allso 
to compleat the system of Despotism by Exposing 



254 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

the lives & properties of this Great people to the 
mercy & decisions of men who are not only Indepen- 
dent of them for their appointment, continuance in 
office & support but dependent in effect for the first, 
& absolutely & intirely for the last two, upon those 
who distinguish & separate their Interest from ours 
& who for several years have been so far from Dis- 
covering any one Instance of regard for our wellfare 
& happiness that they are the source from whence we 
derive all our difficulties & Greivances & who in this 
very Instance discover a particality by no means to be 
justified, by placeing the Judges Here upon a footing 
Dift'erent from that of the Judges in England and which, 
as the doctrine of Instruction is now managed & 
executed, may open a door for appointment to the 
Supream seat of Justice here, strangers whose extrava- 
gance and debeaucherys may drive them from their 
native land and whose rapacity & Injustice in that 
station may be in proportion to their Poverty & Wick- 
edness upon an occasion Therefore so dangerous & 
Important in its nature 8c Consequences. The In- 
habitants of this town in Town meeting assembled. 
Influenced by a sense of the obligations they are under 
to God & their own consciences as well as to Posterity 
to do every thing in our power to Preserve entire our 
rights, and at least to bear our Testimony against all 
Invasions of them do now to avoid the reproaches of 
our Consciences and the Execrations of Posterity 
resolve 



PLYMOUTH'S REFUSAL 255 

*'l. That the People in this Province are Intitled 
to the rights that the people of Great Brittian can claim 
by Nature & their Constitutions. 

"2. That the rights they are intitled to have been 
violently & most injuriously Infracted by the Par- 
liament of Great Brittian and the Administration of 
Government there. . . . 

*' 3. That one providing of the support of the Judges 
of the Superior Court of this Province in any other 
manner than by free Grants of the people is an In- 
fraction of the highest nature & tends of itself to 
destroy every idea of a free Government and to erect 
as perfect a system of Despotism in this Province as 
ever took place in any country. 

"4. That our Representatives be & hereby are In- 
structed to unite in such measures as shall place the 
Judges of the Supream Court of Justice of this Province 
upon a Constitutional Basis & make, when that be 
done, a suitable Provision for their Support. 

"5. That in the opinion of this town the United 
thanks and Grateful acknowledgments of every Indi- 
vidual who is a friend of the Constitution of this country 
& the Interest of posterity is due to the Vigilance & 
spirit of the Inhabitants of the town of Boston upon 
this & many other occasions. 

" (). That this report be put upon the Records of this 
Town there to stand as a Publick monument of the 
sence the Inhal)itants have of their Rights and of their 
Determination at all times as occasion & opportunity 
may offer, assert, Vindicate & support them." 



256 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

On December sixteenth, 1773, the tea was thrown 
into the docks in Boston Harbor, and in March, 1774, 
there was received by the selectmen of Plymouth from 
its "committee of Correspondence" a request for a 
town meeting, "stating that India tea is frequently 
brought into & sold in this town & having done 
Every thing in their power to put a Stop to the practice 
which they conceave to be repugnant to the sense & 
Inclination of their constituents & the principles on 
which they apprehend their security rests without the 
success they could wish for, Do think it their duty to 
request you to call a meeting." Later at a town meet- 
ing called March twenty-fourth it was voted " 1st that 
whoever continues to Sell or shall for the future expose 
for Sale in this towne any India tea is & ought to be 
considered as an Enemy to the rights of America & 
the Constitution of his Country; 2nd that we will 
have no intercourse or dealings with such as shall 
Sell India teas till there be a change in the measures 
of Administration that may procure a change in the 
circumstances of this country which will justify Such 
a Conduct in them & that we will Consider as Im- 
micall to this Country all those who shall have any 
dealings with them." 

On September fifth, 1774, a general congress of all 
the English colonies was held in Philadelphia, and on 
September thirtieth Plymouth notified its representa- 
tives in Boston that, if " the General Assembly should 
be disolved or otherwise hindered from acting, we ex- 



PLYMOUTH'S REFUSAL 257 

pect a Provincial congress will be Immediately formed 
and that you will act as members of it, concocting such 
measures with our brethren of other towns as will have 
the most effectual tendency to shake of the yoak of 
oppression & prevent the operation of those acts of 
which we so justly complain." 

On April nineteenth, 1775, the War for Independence 
of the American colonies began with the battles at 
Lexington and Concord, and on May twenty-first, 
1776, the Plymouth representatives to the Genei-al 
Court were instructed that " As we have this day chose 
you to represent us in the Great & General Court of 
this Colony & as matters of the Greatest Importance 
must necessarily come before you in the Course of this 
year we your Constituents (haveing an undoubted 
Right) do Instruct and in the most Solemn manner 
charge you that you use all your influence, that you exert 
Every power in you Vested in Defence of the Rights, 
the Libertys and Propertys of the iVmerican Colonies 
in General & of this Colony in Particular in opposi- 
tion to the impious effort of the proud, the Imperious 
& worse than Savage Court of Great Brittian which 
seems to be lost to Every Sense of Justice & determined 
to deluge all America in Blood & Carnage unless we by 
a tame unmanly Submission will put ourselves in their 
power to be Controlled by them as they please in all 
Cases Whatsoever. . . . W^e Your Constituents resenting 
such insolent & Notoriously unjust demands of the 
Brittish Parliament & of their Tyrrannie King do In- 



258 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

struct you 1st That you without Hesitation be ready to 
declare for Independence on Great Brittian in whom 
no Confidence can be placed, Provided the Honorable 
the Continental Congress shall think that measure 
necessary, and we for our parts so assure you that we 
will stand by the Determination of the Continentall 
Congress in this Important & as we think very Neces- 
sary measure at the Risque of our lives & fortunes. 
2dly We wish you to use your Influence that Such a 
form of Government may be adopted as may appear 
most Satisfactory &: which may bid fairest to ensure 
a permanent harmony to the Colony's ^' the weal. 
Happiness & Prosperity of America to the latest 
Posterity." 

Such was the spirit of independence which these 
people of Plymouth inherited from their forefathers. 
As events proved, it was most fortunate that in the 
earlier davs the Massachusetts Bay colony had been 
thwarted by Plymouth and the other New England 
colonies in her designs to extend her powers, and 
that the scheme put forward by the Stuarts for a 
consolidation of all the colonies had come too late to be 
accomplished. By this time a second generation of 
Englishmen had grown up in America. Ninety-eight 
per cent, of the population of New England was still 
Enghsh or unmixed descendants of English people, and 
nowhere else in America was there such a homogeneous 
population or men of such high quality. It was be- 
cause of this type of men that Cornwallis surren- 



PLYMOUTH'S REFUSAL 



259 



dered at Yorktown in 178L and tliat the treaty of 
peace acknowledging the independence of the col- 



onies was signed in 1783. 




ANDROS A PRISON P:U IN BOSTON 




CHAPTER XXVI 

COLOXIAL LIFE FROM 16^20- TO 1776 

The Plymouth territorv, which was once the home 
of the Patiixets. the Wampanoags, and other Indian 

tribes, had now only 
a few trails to re- 
mind one of the red 
man. some of which 
had become the 
pathways of the 
early settlers to Bos- 
ton Harbor and to 
Buzzards Bay. As 
the outlying land of 
the colony was allotted from time to time, some of 
these old trails were given up for more convenient 
horse paths, and, as the settlements became villages. 
many of these old trails became roadways. Finally, 
the villages became incorporated towns, and the 
land, being now a part of the towns to be disposed of 
as circumstances demanded, gradually passed into 
the hands of those through whom the present 
ownei*s now hold their titles. 

When the May Flower emigrants settled in this 
wilderness, their pioneer life, as in every new country, 
was, at the best, but a series of makeshifts. We know 
that the Indians, with whom thev alwavs had more or 



COLONIAL LIFE 261 

less trouble, were children of impulse; that these Indians 
were not able to stand protracted military operations or 
a contest in open country; that their strength as fighters 
lay in their ability to find their way through the forest as 
silently and as easily as in the open, and in making sud- 
den and unexpected sallies, to be followed, if unsuccess- 
ful, with a rush to the covert of the woods. This method 
of warfare the settlers had to learn and adopt before 
they could successfully cope with them; and the as- 
sociation of the settlers with them during those early 
years had much to do in shaping the history of the 
colony. 

We know that the different tribes were fiercely hostile 
to each other, and that the colonists always found some 
opportunity to better themselves because of these Indian 
feuds. The Indians, indeed, little appreciated, during 
the struggling fortunes of the Plyiuouth colonists, that 
the occupancy of their country by any settlers would 
have been indefinitely deferred if they had been ^^-ill- 
ing for a time to put aside their local quarrels and 
to make a united stand against the first intruders 
upon their territory. These same antagonisms, how- 
ever, which kept them at war with each other pre- 
vented them making any effective alliance against the 
Avhite men. 

Another factor, which had much to do with the suc- 
cess of the colony, was the trade carried on with these 
Indians. The effect of this traffic, trifling as it may 
seem, was of critical importance, for the Indians, de- 



262 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

sirous of acquiring the white man's goods, entered 
into rival competitions which kept them friendly with 
the whites, but made them more hostile towards each 
other. It was because of the Indian's non-apprecia- 
tion of the value of organization, the ever-prevail- 
ing tribal jealousies, and the white man's shrewdness 
in turning this strife of Indian against Indian to his 
own account, that the red men, although they greatly 
outnumbered tlie white settlers, were never able to 
wage successful warfare against them. 

The homes of these Indians were generally on the 
banks of ponds or on portage paths between streams, 
where they would often have small forest strongholds to 
protect their fisliing rights. In their wigwams there 
was no thouo'ht of cleanliness. Their bodies were 
filthy with vermin, and, with their wild, untrammelled 
natures, they saw little in civilized life to make them 
desire to chanoe their wavs of livino-. In summer the 
clothing of the men was the pelt of some wild animal 
fastened around the waist, and in winter a larger skin, 
the squaws at all seasons wearing skins reaching from 
the neck to the knees. These people, although they 
were kind and hospitable to friends, were merciless to 
enemies, no cruelty being too severe to inflict upon a 
captive. When among strangers, they were dignified 
and reserved, and too proud to exhibit curiosity or 
emotion. In intelligence they were far above savages; 
their tools and implements were admirably adapted to 
theii uses; their boats have never been excelled; and in 



COLONIAL LIFE 263 

the use of fire-arms they soon equalled the best of white 
hunters as marksmen. 

With this type of people the Plymouth colonists were 
surrounded. The settlers found in them formidable 
antagonists, yet, because these Plymouth colonists were 
always fair in their dealings with them, they never suf- 
fered from that desultory warfare afterwards so often 
waged against the frontier settlers in the South and 
Middle West. With a people of the intelligence of 
these Cape Cod Indians there was no thought of 
slavery. Consequently, the Plymouth colonists were 
saved from the temptations and dangers which would 
have come from contact with a more servile race. 
Because the Indians stubbornly contested every step 
of progress, it developed in the Pilgrims those qualities 
of endurance and bravery so essential in nation- 
building and gave to them those staying qualities 
which later enabled them and the other New England 
colonists to present a solid front to the mother country. 
The men of Jamestown had succumbed to far less 
hardships, but religious convictions had so nerved the 
Pilgrims to the grim task which they believed God- 
given that they successfully accomplished what few 
would have dared to attempt. It was the need of 
these sterling qualities, which was lacking among the 
leaders of the southern colonists, that made the early 
Virginia settlements failures. 

Only casual glimpses have come down to us of the 
every-day life of these Plymouth emigrants during 



2t>4 OUK ri.YMOUrU FOREFATHERS 

their pionoor days. Wo know that thov had poultry, 
i^xits, aiul swino. but uo cattle or sheep; that ludiau 
c'oru was their ouly bread food: aud that iu Ur2"-2 and 
ltr2:>. although there wasa scarcity of corn, they had fresh 
tish, lobsters, and clams, so that AVinslow wrote home 
in November, U>*21, '* Hy the goodness of God we are 
so far from want that we often wish others partakers 
of our plenty." We know that wild gra^vs, huckle- 
Ix^rries. and strawberries grew plentifully, but. as the 
art oi preserving fruits was not then understood, these 
fruits weiv to be had only during the sunnner and 
autunni. We know that their breakfast was generally 
corn-meal bread and tish o( some kind and their dinner 
bean soup, baked beans and jx>rk. or tish. lobsters, 
or clams, with such vegetables as ^vas. squash, turnips, 
pai-snips. and onions, and occasionally venison, wild 
ducks, and wild turkey. After the tirst few years, 
butter and cluvse were plentiful, and. as tea and cott'ee 
wert^ then unknown to Europeans, beer was the uni- 
vei-sal beverage, the older children being allowed to 
drink it with their elders. We know that in place of 
plates they used wcx^jden dishes called tivnchers. and in 
place of cups and saucers w(.x>den lx>wls. As table 
forks were then unknown.- -although large forks were 
used in cooking. — all ate solid food with their knives, 
and in place of forks used their tingers. as was the cus- 
tom in those days. 

In the earlier days the men generally wore coarse 
canvas and cordnix-tv clothiniT or oiled leather and buck- 



COLONIAL LIFK 265 

skin, only tlio more prosjuMous liavin^- coarse lionic- 
spnn. But on Snndiivs all wore kncr-hrooclics, lonjr 
stockings, and hucklcd shoes. The orowth of the 
difl'erent Massachusells settleinenis and the passenger 
traflie between En<j^land and her colonies soon hronj^ht 
the Plyniouih settlers into closer contact with jidvaucing 
civilization, ;ind it was not long Ix'fore the wives and 
<lnnghlers ol' the settlers discarded the sombre (Quaker- 
like dresses so often described, and wore colored silk 
plush gowns, " red cotes," laced neck-cloths, wimples 
and veils, and on special occasions wore ear-rings, 
chains, bracekts, brooches, rings, "coifTcMU's with long 
Avings," elaborate hoods, nuifik'rs, and silk bomiets. 
"^^riie men, too, changed their style of dress, and insh'ad 
of having only their soldier uniforms and se?itinel 
armors to choose from, had "suites of dublett and hose 
of leather lyned with oyleeskin leather which were 
fastened wilh hooks and eyes inslcjid of buttons,'* 
"waistcoats of greene collon t)ound about with red 
tape," "breeches of oiled leather," "read knitt capj)S, 
gloves of shee[)s and calfs leather," gold belts, and 
"points" at the knees. After a while hoo[)ed i)etti- 
coats, embroidered gloves, "bomiets trimmed with 
sixteen yards of ril)bon," laced hoods, and mantles 
finally came in vogue for the women, and the n>en 
rivalled these fashions by wearing velvet coals, l)road- 
cloth and satin knee-breeches, embroidered three- 
cornered hats, and '*full bottomed wigs." With the 
change in social life, social distinctions began to appear.. 



266 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

These were based on birth, service to the State, ablUty, 
education, and, to some extent, wealth. The older 
families also made some pretensions to social superi- 
ority over the new-comer, and, although the people 
were by public opinion now separated into classes, 
class distinction never became so sharply drawn as in 
the Massachusetts Bay colony. 

On account of religious freedom which had been 
the basis of all the ^lassachusetts settlements, there 
had emigrated to New England many ministers. These 
men, by reason of their high moral qualities and strong 
personal traits, had so deeply impressed themselves upon 
the people that they became the real leaders and the 
real makers of the laws. The minister's house, the 
store, the blacksmith's shop, the tavern which was 
usually kept by some leading man of the community, 
and a <]:rist-mill and saw-mill which was on some stream 
close by, became the nucleus around which each neigh- 
borhood grew into a village, the houses generally being 
along a single street lined with elm-trees. As these 
villages grew in population and the inhabitants became 
more prosperous, houses with spacious rooms and large 
fireplaces were built, these houses where model house- 
wives kept everything scrupulously clean, and prided 
themselves on their highly polished pewters and brasses, 
being typical of those times. 

The Indians had long been a part of the community 
of every village, and in 1663 fifteen hundred Indians 
had professed faith in the Christian religion. In both 



COLONIAL LIFE 267 

the Massachusetts Bay and the Plymouth colonies 
African slavery had long existed, and in l)oth colonies 
negroes were bought and sold as slaves the same as 
in Southern States. Almost all of those, however, held 
in slavery in Plymouth, became house servants, and 
none were treated harshly, as slavery was generally 
discouraged. Nevertheless, not until just before the 
Revolutionary War did anti-slavery ideas begin to 
appear, and not until that time did the colonists see 
in slavery anything to shock their moral sense. 

As none of the larger streams had bridges, travel 
was by horseback, and wheeled vehicles were seldom 
seen, except in the larger towns. Husking and spin- 
ning bees, quilting and darning parties, and an occa- 
sional house-raising were the principal forms of amuse- 
ment. Cider, Jamaica rum, and "flip" — which was 
made of home-brewed beer with a liberal dash of 
Jamaica rum — were the favorite beverages, and, 
although there was some drunkenness, it was never as 
common as in the other colonies. 

Notwithstanding the people were kind and hospitable, 
there was always a lurking disapproval of any sort of 
amusement, and toward strangers a coldness and reserve 
in spite of the inquisitiveness which is still a peculiar 
characteristic of New England people. Patient, frugal, 
and industrious, they obeyed the word of God as they 
understood it. Their thin, sharp features rarely relaxed 
into smiles, and their faces reflected the stern religion of 
their hearts. 



268 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Town meetings, where the settlers met to decide the 
affairs of the community, w^ere held annually on the first 
Tuesday of March. At these meetings voting and 
office-holding was not restricted to church members, 
as those of other sects or of no sect, who adhered to 
the essentials of Chi-istianity and were ready to con- 
form to the local laws and customs of the colony, 
were allow^ed to vote, — a liberality far in advance of 
the Bay colony. These town meetings, which were the 
basis of their civil government, were at first merely 
an assembly of the members of the church, as nearly 
all the early colonists were members by profession and 
covenant. By assembling together to discuss and 
determine their civil matters, they simply made another 
advance in their Congregational independence. Yet 
this method of self-government by which the people 
had full power to do everything essential for their com- 
fort, happiness, and well-being, was at that time 
unique, — a form of government which afterwards be- 
came the model of the other colonies and the ground- 
work of the civil liberties of the United States. 

Although they had fled from the laws of England, 
they affected no disregard for the wisdom and learning 
of their ancestors, following, when possible, the Eng- 
lish laws; yet the laws now passed were based upon 
the Bible, and were often in bold defiance of customs 
immemorial and of forms made sacred by antiquity. 
With no pretensions to a more perfect knowledge of 
man's true social condition than that which prevailed 



COLONIAL LIFE 269 

at home, they determined to make laws suited to their 
own special needs and conditions, and instituted a 
process of legal reforms which were radical, yet con- 
servative. 

In their earliest forms of legal procedure the governor 
and his council decided all civil disputes. Later a 
regular court was established^ aijipi in all criminal 
cases, as great publicity was/gi^n to all forms of 
punishment, gibbets, stocks, ^uclSng-stools, pillories, 
and whipping-posts became iSmim^r objects. Finally, 
when the colonies becamel^iiiled, colonial courts 
were established with colonial judges, justices of the 
peace and commissioners being appointed by colonial 
authority to try small cases in the different towns. 

As Congregationalism was the keynote of the colony, 
the people believed that they had the right, according 
to their understanding of the Scriptures, to choose and 
ordain their own ministers. The real basis, therefore, 
of their dispute with the Established Church was, " Who 
makes the ministers ? " It was because of this belief 
that the doctrine of Congregationalism crystallized 
into a church constitution that no church ought to 
have more members than could conveniently watch over 
one another; that every church should consist of 
only such persons as believe in and obey Christ; that 
any number of persons, if their consciences so directed 
them, had a right to embody themselves into a church; 
that, having formed themselves into a church, they had 
the right to choose all their officers; that the officers 



270 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

should be: first, pastors, or teaching elders, who were to 
administer the sacraments and devote themselves to 
the spiritual needs of the parish; second, ruling elders, 
or presbyters, who were to have charge of the parish; 
and, third, the deacons, who were to take care of the 
poor, to look after the finances of the church, and to 
minister at the Lord's Table. As the church officers 
only ruled and administered with the consent of the 
members of the church, no church or church officer 
had any power over any other church. As each 
church was, therefore, independent in its work, it 
had absolute authority to admit, expel, or censure 
its members, and, because the people believed that 
they themselves and not the building in which they 
worshipped were the church, their places of worship 
were called meeting-houses, and not churches. 

These church societies were composed not only of 
those who made confession of a moral and spiritual 
new birth or conversion — these, strictly speaking, 
being the church — but also of those who attended 
public worship and paid their taxes, these latter being 
known as the parish. These two bodies ruled the 
society, neither acting independently of the otlier on 
important matters. In the appointment or dismissal of 
a minister the initiative had to be taken by the church, 
but the action of the church had to be sustained by 
the vote of the parish. Not unnaturally, therefore, 
the church came to stand for what was conservative 
in the life of the society, and the parish for what was 



COLONIAL LIFE 271 

progressive. Consequently, the records show that the 
tendency of the church was to become rigid and narrow, 
and to bear hard on neglect of worship as well as on the 
most innocent forms of amusement, and that the ten- 
dency of the parish was to lighten ecclesiastical dis- 
cipline for a larger personal liberty. Friction conse- 
quently became inevitable. Each, however, helped the 
other, and, notwithstanding the fact that the church 
was dogmatic and imperious, it set the stamp of sacred- 
ness upon church life, and by its determination to lead, 
and not be led, did not permit what was intended to 
be a Christian commonwealth to shrink into a merely 
secular corporation. 

In analyzing the lives of these people, there is no 
more distinguishing characteristic than their reverent 
observance of the Lord's Day. We read of one 
Plymouth man being put in the stocks for going to 
his tar pits on Sunday; of another receiving the same 
punishment "for driving his cows without need" on 
Sunday; of Aquila Chase and his wife being fined "for 
gathering peas from their garden on the Sabbath"; of 
William Ester, ten shillings for "Racking Hay on the 
Lord's Day " ; of a Wareham man, five shillings " for a 
breach of the Sabbath in pulling apples " ; and of a 
Dunstable soldier, four shillings "for wetting a piece 
of an old hat on the Sabbath to put in his shoe" to 
protect his foot. Not content with the strict observance 
of the Sabbath, work ceased at three o'clock Saturday 
afternoon, and Saturday evening was spent at home 



OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 



1 



in catechising the children and ** in preparation for the 
Sabeth as the minister shall direct." On Sunday the 
time after sunset, however, was often given to merry- 
making, but the sudden transition from the religious 
calm and quiet of the afternoon generally shocked the 
minister, who from sunset on Saturday until Monday 
morning did not shave or allow in his house beds to be 
made, food to be cooked, or e\x>king or table ware to 
be washed. 

To oarr}- out a strict observance of the Lord's Day. 
there was appointed in every community a unique 
kind of officer known as the '^thing-man." whose func- 
tion, as the name implies, was to have ten families 
under his charge and "to diligently inspect them that 
they regularly come to meeting on the Sabbath." and. 
iP necessary, to keep them awake with a fox-tail 
wand while there. He had also to see that the 
catechism was learned by the children of his ten fam- 
ilies, and. when he thought it necessary, to hear them 
say it. In addition to these duties he was obliged to 
make complaint of all idle persons. ** profane swearers," 
and Sabbath breakers, and to warn tavern-keepers not 
to sell intoxicating drinks to such men as, in his judg- 
ment, had had sutficient already: "to see that no young 
persons walkevi abroad on the eve of the Sabbath, and 
to report all those who prtrfanely behaved. Ungered 
without the do^^rs at meeting time, strutted about, set 
on fences, or otherwise desecrated the day." In case 
of conviction the culprit was first admonished, and then. 



COLONIAL LIFE 273 

if incorrigible, put into the stocks wliioh stood on the 
mtx^tiiig-hoiise green. This close surveillance of the 
life of the community, which existed in all the Xew 
England towns, has often been called the Puritan 
theocracy of Xew England, and it has no doubt done 
much to asstviate with these pei^ple the idea of narR^w- 
ness and intolerance. Yet, notwithstanding it honestly 
endeavored to enforce religious observances and the 
moralities of life by extoinal restraint, it at length 
l>ecame rt^pellent to the j^Hx^ple, and was gradually 
given up in all the settlements. 

During the early years the social centre of the vil- 
lage life in every community was the meetiuix-house, 
and. although public opinion as well as church authority 
compelled church attendance, most of the settlers. 
l>eing scattered on lonely farms, were glad to meet 
together on Sunday, not only to hear the sermon, but 
also to get the kx\il news of im|.xMuiing marriao^es. of 
cattle lost or found, of bounties to be paid for the 
heads of wolves, of fisliing vessels alx)ut to sail, and 
oi town meetings to be held. As tliese meeting-houses 
were also used for the town meetings, town notices, 
orders, and regulations were always |^x>sted on the doors. 
At first these buildings were log houses thatched with 
grass. The casement windows were covered with oil 
paper, and the l>eaten earth was the only floor. Inside 
ever^-thing was of the simplest kind. At the further end 
was the high pulpit, reached by a narrow flight of stairs: 
and the seats for the congregation were rows of long. 



274 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

narrow, and uncomfortable benches on legs, which 
made them look like milking-stools, the women and 
children sitting during the service on one side of the 
building, and the men on the other. 

As the villages grew in population, "good roomthy 
meeting houses " took the places of these earlier build- 
ings, which were now used for granaries, storehouses, 
or "noon houses" for the mid-day luncheons before 
the sermon in the afternoon, — a use not considered 
sacrilegious, as these buildings had never been con- 
secrated. These new meeting-houses were generally 
square wooden buildings, having pyramidal roofs with 
belfries at the apex, each belfry having a bell, if the 
parish could afford it, and, when there was no bell, the 
people were called to worship by blowing a horn or a 
conch-shell or by beating a drum. Seldom were these 
buildings painted, as painting a building was con- 
sidered vain and extravagant. The people, fearing 
forest fires, had cleared the land around the meeting- 
houses of all trees, and on these meeting-house greens 
were the village stocks, pillories, and whipping-posts; 
also horse blocks of large hewn logs for the use of the 
parishioners, who with their wives came to church on 
sturdy farm horses, having perhaps a young child on 
a pillion strapped behind the saddle. 

In the course of time the interiors of these meeting- 
houses were made more pretentious, the pulpits being 
often panelled with carved mahogany, and having 
over them large sounding-boards, held in position 



COLONIAL LIFE 275 

by slender cords seemingly ready to break at any time 
and let the sounding-board crush the minister, like a 
great extinguisher. "Spots for peus" were now sold 
to such influential men as wished to sit by themselves, 
and soon families of wealth had family pews with seats 
on three sides and with such high partitions that, when 
the occupants were seated, only the tops of the tallest 
heads could be seen. Next "box hke pews" were 
built for the whole congregation, and, after many 
heated discussions in every church, the men and women 
who did not own pews were allowed to sit "promis- 
cuouslee." On a platform in front of the pulpit there 
was now a large square pew where the deacons sat, 
facing the congregation, and on either side of the 
pulpit "the fore-seat," which only persons of impor- 
tance in the community were allowed to occupy. In 
the gallery over the entrance were the singers' seats, 
and just inside the door the soldier's seat, where there 
was always an armed sentinel, so that the safety of 
the community would never be overlooked. 

On Sunday morning the congregation either waited 
outside the meeting-house for the arrival of the minister 
and his Avife or they arose in their pews while the parson 
in his black skull-cap and Geneva cloak entered the 
pulpit. During prayer it was the custom to stand, 
as kneeling and bowing the head was thought to savor 
of Roman idolatry. In the earlier days these straight- 
laced settlers were allowed to smoke their pipes during 
the service, but this was at length given up on account 



276 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

of the too frequent striking of flint and steel. Soon 
after this prohibition four old sea-dogs of Yarmouth 
were fined five shiUings each "for smoking tobacco 
around the end of the meeting-house." 

As the minister played an important part in the lives 
of the people, it was often customary, in laying out a 
new town settlement, to set aside for the minister's use 
some of the best land near the meeting-house, this 
sometimes being given to him outright, and sometimes 
being set aside as "ministry land." In fixing the 
salaries of the ministers, the colonists did not forget 
their week-day shrewdness, and always made the 
stipend of their clergymen small. With this small 
salary, however, there were always several perquisites, 
Plymouth at one time voting that " where God's provi- 
dence shall cast any whales [upon the shore] that they 
shall agree to set apart some parte of every such fish 
or oyle for the Incoragement of an able and godly 
minister among them"; in 1665 voting that "one 
of the townsmen be appointed to procure his neces- 
sary w^ood"; and in 1666 that "the Towne agreed to 
alow unto Mr. John Cotton [the minister] the sume of 
eighty pounds out of which said sume hee is to find 
and provide for himselfe firewood without any charge 
of the towne, the manner of the pay to be one-third 
pte thereof in wheat or butter and one-third in Rye 
or Barley or pease and the other third in Indian 
Corne." In addition to his salary free pasturage was 
also given the minister's horse, and for this purpose 



COLONIAL LIFE 277 

the village burial-ground was generally assigned, in 
Plymouth the Rev. Chandler Robbins being requested 
"not to have more horses than shall be necessary on 
Burial Hill." 

A school for the education of the children had early 
been established in Plymouth, and in 1662 the General 
Court enacted that each municipality should "have a 
schoolmaster set up," the teacher receiving his pay 
from the parents of the scholars. Subsequently, in 
1670, the General Court offered to any town "the 
fishing excise from the Cape which should keep a free 
school, classical as well as elementary," Plymouth in 
1671 voting that out of the money received from the 
fishing tax to employ a suitable person "to teach the 
children and youths of the towne to Reade and write 
and Cast accounts." 

As Plymouth was the capital and the largest town 
of the colony and as many people from the sur- 
rounding country were always there both for busi- 
ness and pleasure, it was voted in 1668 that, because 
of the complaints " that many horses are rid and driven 
threw the Towne by strangers ... in a disorderly way, " 
a committee be appointed "to take notice of such 
horses as are soe carryed threw the Towne and are 
hereby inpowered to examine such strangers whether 
they have a passe for them . . . and if not to seize on 
them and forthwith to bring them before some of the 
magistrates of this jurisdiction for tryal"; and that 
"the celect men shall hensforth have full power to 



278 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Require any that shall Receive any stranger soe as to 
entertaine them in theire house to give cecuritie unto 
them to save the Towne harmless from any damage 
that may acrew unto them by theire entertainment of 
such as aforesaid." 

In 1668 there being in Plymouth only forty-eight 
freemen, or those who held proprietary rights in the 
common lands of the town, it was voted "that only 
such be deputed Townsmen that were Inhabitants and 
ffreeholders thereof att that time when as the court 
alowes it to be a Township [1640J and theire successors 
and that it shall be at theire libertie to admitt such 
others into such there society as are housekeepers of 
honest life and are like to approve themselves soe as 
they may be beneficial to the commonwealth accord- 
ing to theire capacitie and abilities." At this meeting 
nineteen others were made freemen, making now 
sixty-seven proprietors of the town. As these pro- 
prietors were the only ones who could vote on matters 
affecting the property of the town, they frequently 
voted to themselves the benefits which accrued from 
such ownership, in 1671 voting "that there shalbe 
noe Tarr made by any persons but such as are Town- 
men or their order and that there shall be noe pyne 
knots picked or Tarr Run or made within this Town- 
ship by any person but by such as are the proprietors 
as aforesaid or their order and that any such pro- 
prietor or his order may make ten barrels of Tarr by 
the yeare and noe more"; it being also voted "that 



COLONIAL LIFE 279 

whatsoever whole or pte of a whale or other great fish 
that will make oyle shall by the Providence of God be 
Cast up or Come on shore . . . two ptes of three thereof 
to belonge and appertaine to the Towne, viz., the pro- 
prietors aforesaid, and the other third pte to such of the 
Towne as shall find and Cutt them up and try the oyle 
provided they be of said proprietors that doe soe find 
and cut up and try them and in case any other that are 
not proprietors as aforesaid whether Inhabitants of 
this towne or forrangners shall find any such Whale or 
ffish and bring word or give notice thereof to the Towne 
they shall be sufficiently satisfied for the same." 

The same year a " fulling " mill for thickening wool 
into felt was built at the mouth of the Town Brook near 
the grist-mill. Notice was also given to the owners 
of the grist-mill that they must provide a building 
for the corn brought there, that "persons be not 
wronged on that behalf as they have been or otherwise 
the towne will procure another mill to be sett up." 
Blackbirds becoming again troublesome, it was voted, 
in 1673, that "every man in the town shall procure 
twelve black birds, six of them by the first of June next 
and six of them by the first of October next on payne 
of psLjing a fine of two shillings." It was also voted 
that " whereas Great Complaint is made of much abuse 
by the feeding of neat Cattle and horses in the ffresh 
meddows belonging to severall of the Towne of Ply- 
mouth ... it shalbe lawfull for any that shall find such 
Cattle and horses soe tresspassing to bringe them to the 



280 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

Towne pound and that the owners of such cattle or 
horses shall pay for every neat beast two shillings and for 
every horse kind five shiUings." It was also "ordered 
by the Towne that the Celect men of the Towne be 
Impowered to Call such younge men and others as live 
Idelely and disorderly to an account for theire mis- 
pending theire time in ordinaryes.'* 

In 1677 a bounty of ten shillings for every wolf 
killed was voted. In 1679 an appropriation was made 
for sweeping the meeting-house and ringing the bell, and 
in 1681 "that the money due from Mount Hope shall 
be used in repairing the meeting house or for building 
a new one." Among other votes passed was one " that 
no housekeeper or other in this Towne Residering shall 
entertaine any stranger into theire house above a fort- 
night without giving information to the Celect men upon 
the forfeiture of ten shilhngs a weeke . . . and in case 
the Celect men see cause ... to expell them out of the 
Towne." In 1682 it was voted "that in building the 
new meeting house " "the length there of is to be forty 
foot, and the breadth 40 foot and 16 foot in the wall 
. . . and to finish the same with seats, Galleryes &C." 
It was also voted that " a committee be appointed by the 
Towne to Grant Tickets according to Law in such Case 
provided unto such as are Nessessitated to travell on the 
Lord's Day in case of danger of death or such like 
nessisitous occasions." 

In 1684 it was voted that "the King's highway 
throughout our Township be layed out " ; in 1695, that 



COLONIAL LIFE 281 

it be permitted to kill "6 Crows in the Rome of 12 
black birds for each house holder"; in 1702 "That 
every ffreeholder That hath ben soe for six years last 
past That hath not had 30 ackers of land Granted to 
them by the Inhabitants of the Town within 20 years 
last past shall have 30 acres of land paid forth to them 
out of the Commons belonging to sd Towne"; in 1710, 
that a bridge be built over Stony Brook at Kingston "of 
about three logs breadth"; in 1711, that a piece of land 
be laid out " for a perpetual Common or training plase" 
and another piece " for publick use to make bricks up " ; 
in 1712, that permission be granted "to plant oysters 
in avery place or places with in sd bay as they shall 
judg most likely for the groath and increase of oysters"; 
in 171.5, that seats in the meeting-house be assigned to 
negroes and Indians. 

In 1727 it was voted " that there be Encouragement 
given to those persons that shall kill any wild cats 
within the Township of Plymouth and that ten shillings 
shall be paid per head"; also "that there be an Alms 
House built for the Entertainment of the Poor of the 
town"; in 1729, that every householder in the thickly 
settled parts of the town must have near his house a 
hogshead or two barrels or have a cistern, the same to 
be kept full of water; in 1730, "that there be the sum 
of fifty pounds raised to help support the Charges of our 
Ajency in England in defence of our privileges"; also 
that there be a committee who " shall take care that the 
children and youths in the Town of Plymouth may 



282 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

be well regulated on the Lord's day '' ; also " to Procure 
us a new Bell for the Meeting House and if necessary 
to send home to England for one " ; in 1733, " that the 
Meeting House be repaired where it is needful and pai-- 
ticularly to do something about the Deacons seat"; 
in 1742, "to accept the Reports of the Committe Re- 
lating to ye Erecting a Breast work and Platform on 
Coles Hill"; in 1744, "that wherebyye Meeting Houses 
are endangered by Being set on fire and consumed it is 
hereby voted that each person Leaving his or her stove 
in any of the Meeting Houses in sd Town after the 
People are all gone (But ye Saxton) shall forfeit & Pay 
ye sum of Five shillings." 

In 1754 it was voted in reference to an " Excise Bill 
passed by the House of Representatives & the Counsell 
Respecting an Excise upon Private Familyes for Rum, 
Wine & C consumed therein . . . that ye sd Bill is dis- 
agreable to the Town as it appears unequal and unjust 
and has a Tendency to Destroy ye natural Rights and 
Privileges of Every Individual In the Government"; 
in 1768, that "the Representatives be Directed to En- 
deavor all in his power at the General Court to prevent 
an Excise being layd on Spiritous Liquor in this Pro- 
vince"; in 1769, "to Dig a Well fourteen feet, to be 
for the Common Use of the town"; in 1770, "to build 
a powder house for the town's powder & for private 
property"; in 1771, to allow a mill to be built on the 
Town Brook for " the leather dressing business or that 
of manufacturing deere skins & sheep skins"; in 1772, 



COLONIAL LIFE 283 

that there be an order obliging "traders and other 
Inhabitants of said Town to store their powder in the 
powder house"; and "that the Selectmen Get a new 
bell for the school house, the old one being broak." 

With the War for Independence now approaching, 
it was voted in 1774 "to have a Watch Kept in this 
town, called a Constable Watch"; also that the town 
clerk "enter in the town records the names of such 
persons as shall by the province be considered & pub- 
lished as rebels against the State"; on January third, 
1775, that "each of the minnet men be allowed four 
pence for each time they meet for Exercise which 
makes one shiUing per week"; on January twenty- 
seventh, "to procure fifty Good Guns & bayonets for 
the town use and that the town will procure two drums 
for their use, at Presant to be lent to the Minnet Com- 
panys in this town." Later, on March twentieth, it 
was voted "that Considering the alarming Circum- 
stances of our publick affairs it is not expedient for 
the fishing vessels to sail now"; also "to build a 
breast work for fireing the Cannon in this town and to 
purchase thirteen hundred of cannon shot of various 
sizes"; on July twenty-seventh, "to erect a Beacon 
on Monks Hill to be an alarm to the neighboring towns 
in case this town should be attacked by their enemies " ; 
on August fourteenth, to purchase all the powder in 
town, and "to engage a number of persons to take care 
of the Battery & the Guns"; on January twenty-ninth, 
to appoint a committee "to make Experiments & find 



284 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

out the easiest method to make Saltpeter," and to 
confer with the neighboring towns "in Petitioning the 
General Court to build a fort for the defence of this 
town and harbour " ; on February twelfth, " to petition 
his Excellency Generall Washington Desiring him to 
assist us to build a fort for the defence of this harbor.'* 




THK FIRST WASHING DAY 



CHAPTER XXVII 



A PEOPLE OF DESTINY 



Up to the time when the Plymouth settlement was 
made, the notion had prevailed in England that her 
colonies could only be utilized 
profitably to clear the mother 
country of jail-birds and pau- 
pers. To this plantation, how- 
ever, it was left to demonstrate 
that only the honest and the 
thrifty could work out the salva- 
tion of a wilderness, and more 
than one historian has noticed 
that every attempt to colonize 
any part of New England had 
failed until these Pilgrims be- 
gan a settlement based upon a 
profound sense of duty and a 
steadfast reliance upon God. 

Never before had a colony like this one been founded, 
and during the colonial days of the United States there 
was no colony which did not acknowledge the difference 
between its own settlement and this one, which in 
the eyes of the whole world was regarded with a cer- 
tain reverence. This was because these May Flower 
Pilgrims were a band of religious exiles with none of 
that restless spirit of the adventurer or that desire for 
wealth which had thrilled so many other colonists. 




NATIONAL MONUMENT TO OUR 
PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 



286 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

With them it was simply a desire to have a home 
under the EngHsh flag, where they and their children 
could enjoy religious freedom and free institutions. 

They had sailed for the New World without a royal 
charter from their king, without any useful grant from 
any corporate body, without any ecclesiastical head 
but one of their own choosing, and without a civil 
head in any form, the colony having its first charter when 
it united with the Massachusetts colony. In the new 
country they had established that relation between 
Church and State which exists to-day in the American 
Republic — a free Church and a free State, each sepa- 
rate and independent of the other. Although the sala- 
ries of the ministers were voted annually at the town 
meetings, the Church only looked to the State for pro- 
tection, and in its turn the State only called upon the 
Church to quicken and enlighten the moral sense of the 
people. Each was a distinct body, and, although most 
of the colonists were members of both Church and 
State, it was clearly understood that of one body the 
head was Christ, and of the other. King James. 

In Holland these Plymouth Fathers had, without 
complaint, suffered such hardships as came to them, 
and had willingly crossed the ocean to settle on the 
borders of an unexplored country, inhabited only by 
Indians. Here they were ready, if necessary, to be 
martyrs to their faith, well knowing that, if death should 
come, it must be met without any stimulating applause 
and approbation. They had come to this unknown 



A PEOPLE OF DESTINY 287 

world because their religion had gripped their con- 
sciences, and their consciences would not let them feign 
satisfaction with things as they were or tacitly consent 
to what they beheved untrue. Owing to the depths of 
their convictions, they had separated from the Church 
of England, and had endured for weeks all the terrors 
of the ocean in a leaking boat, in a cabin crowded 
almost to suffocation. They had arrived at Cape Cod 
poorly equipped and scantily provisioned, but with a 
dogged religious determination to make their colony 
a success. In their unrestrained zeal there was nothing 
too dangerous to undertake. P'or dangers already 
escaped they gave reverent thanks to their God, and 
dangers to come they were ready to face with an in- 
finite trust in their Maker. 

Their one inspiring hope had been that religious 
freedom, which in the Old World had been stifled in 
its conflicts with the corruptions of accumulated ages, 
might find a foothold in the New. This was the incen- 
tive that brought them to America, and in it there were 
all the elements of ideal heroism, for they were willing 
to sacrifice for their religion every valued association 
with their mother country. Acting without a charter, 
they w^orked out their career under an elective system 
of government, and their settlement, being well estab- 
lished before others were undertaken, became a model 
for later colonists. Who, then, can deny that the 
courage and enterprise which they showed was the 
determining element which decided that all-important 



288 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

question of their time, namely, whether the French 
or the EngUsh were to predominate in the western 
hemisphere ? 

The story of their hves gives us a bit of history as 
rich in events and as interesting and romantic as any 
in the annals of our race. In the trial of new ideas 
and in the experiments which they made for free insti- 
tutions, they took a leading part. In the beginning 
of their struggle they had said that "they were sensi- 
ble that the heavy hand of God was upon them," and, 
when we recall the great odds against which they 
successfully battled, we rightfully call them Pilgrim 
Fathers. If their history after the landing on Plym- 
outh Rock had been blotted out, or, if after their 
second or their third winter on the New England 
coast the book had been closed, what social economist 
is there who would not say that theirs was the rash- 
ness of children fighting against obstacles too great 
to overcome ? The resolution and courage with which, 
in their loyalty to their God, these unlettered men 
were willing to face the uncertainties of an unknown 
country for the vindication of a great human right, 
shows that they were men of a singularly strong and 
sturdy type, — men who have given us a free religion 
and a civil government unexampled in any previous 
period of human existence. These sterling qualities 
inherited by their children have given us the New 
England type of people, and "the children unto the 
third and fourth generation " have in turn carried the 



A PEOPLE OF DESTINY 289 

New England idea of education and of local self- 
government westward to the Pacific Ocean. 

Although their religion was their master impulse, 
there was always with it the saving grace of sound 
common sense. Although they had exiled themselves 
to make a stand for religious liberty, the events of their 
lives, when linked together, show that underneath 
was a belief in some fundamental law that all men are 
equals, and that they should enjoy whatever rights and 
privileges belong to mankind in common. The com- 
pact made in the cabin of the May Flower, when 
equal rights were given to all, the division of the land 
and cattle by lot, and the preamble to their first code of 
laws, all show how firmly they believed in this funda- 
mental principle. Free inquiry into matters of religion, 
instead of meaning the right of the laity to read the 
Bible and to interpret it as one's conscience dictated, 
developed into a right to make independent search into 
everything which had to do with human thought and 
human life, and, because they insisted upon this right, 
the world will ever be their debtor. This is the inheri- 
tance which they left to their children, and which, more 
than all else, has made our country respected by every 
other nation. 

In studying their lives, one cannot but notice how 
thoroughly they believed they were fulfilling some 
mysterious destiny, that their successes and failures, 
their joys and sorrows, their losses and gains, were a 
part of some plan of their God. Together with this 



290 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

belief was a faith that their God was personally 
directing their work, and this gave to them a masterly 
sincerity, a concentrated enthusiasm, and a courage 
without limit. In 1617 John Robinson and William 
Brewster had written Sir Edwin Sandys " We verily 
believe & trust ye I/ord is with us." After the settle- 
ment had been made at Plymouth, other incidents 
fixed the same thought more firmly in their minds. 
This idea of the personal supervision of God in the 
every-day occurrences was no new thought of those 
times. Even Governor Winthrop of the Massachusetts 
Bay colony had often in his journal attributed current 
events to supernatural causes, and Captain Johnson, in 
a book entitled "The Wonder Working Providence of 
Zion's Saviour in New England," had spoken of Christ 
as "guiding every shaft that flies, leading every bullet 
to its place of setting and every weapon to the wound 
it makes." 

Two hundred years before the days of the Pilgrim 
Fathers, Jean d'Arc had established one of the most 
astounding facts of known history. Not believed in by 
those in power, she had been examined by the bishops 
upon the order of the king, and the bishops had re- 
ported that there were more things in heaven and earth 
than their philosophy had taught them. She had made 
a strange claim about visions, voices, and a personal 
contact with the supernatural. Socrates had made the 
same claim. In the Scriptures, visions and voices, as 
well as God's personal communion with men, were also 



A PEOPLE OF DESTINY 291 

spoken of, and, the God of the Scriptures being the 
God of these Pilgrims, these people believed that they, 
too, had spiritual communications from their God. 

Unknown to themselves, these Plymouth Pilgrims 
were the advance-guard of a civilization which was to 
affect the world. Recalling the events which preceded 
their emigration, one may fairly ask if it was not a part 
of some divine plan to have a place prepared for them, 
and if it was a mere coincidence, when in the year 1602 
"several religious people near the joining borders of 
Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire (Gains- 
borough) joined themselves by covenant into a church 
state to walk in all His ways," that Bartholomew Gos- 
nold discovered Cape Cod. Did the interposition of 
some divine providence prevent Gosnold's intended 
settlement being made on Cape Cod.^ Was it pre- 
destined that, although it was contrary to their plans, 
the Pilgrims were to locate outside the limits of their 
grant, where a pestilence had left no Indian tribe to 
prevent them making a settlement.'' Was the supply 
of seed-corn, which was discovered the day before the 
winter's freeze-up, "a spetiall providence of God," as 
Bradford had expressed it.^ After their first skirmish 
with the Indians all felt that " it had pleased God to 
vanquish their enimies, and by his spetiall providence so 
to dispose that not one of them were either hurte or 
kilt." Later other events in their lives seemed to show 
that the hand of some unknown power was working 
out for them some unknown destiny. Was it chance 



292 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

that Sainoset, the only Indian who could speak a few 
words of English, had come to them during those criti- 
cal days, and that Squanto had been on hand to teach 
them how to plant the corn without which they would 
have died because of want of proper food ? Was it 
chance that the first winter was unusually mild, and 
that, had it been otherwise, all would have perished ? 
Was there some reason why they received from John 
Huddleston, a person unknown to them, his friendly 
letter of advice which made them take unusual precau- 
tions against the Indians ? Did Standish, the one man 
feared by all the Indians, have some monition to keep 
his men on guard that night at Barnstable when the 
Indians had secretly plotted to murder them ? — a moni- 
tion which made him at Sandwich, a few days later, 
restlessly pace all night back and forth before his camp- 
fire, not knowing that an Indian was in the camp 
ready to kill him as soon as he fell asleep, a monition 
which he often afterwards said he was unable to ex- 
plain. Was it chance that, when these Plymouth people 
prayed for rain from sunrise to sunset, in their fort- 
church on the hill, rain came in abundance ? Were the 
colonists wrong in insisting that this rain had come in 
answer to their prayers, and the Indians in believing 
that it was because o!^ God's mercy only, that, when 
there was no signs of rain, suddenly rain had come ? 
Whether we believe or not that every one born into 
this world has his work born with him, we know that 
the Pilgrim Fathers had a firmly rooted conviction that 



A PEOPLE OF DESTINY 293 

their God had sent them across the Atlantic to fulfil 
His will, and, whether we believe or not that they were 
a people of destiny, we must at least admit that many of 
the events of their lives were out of the commonj)lace. 
When the colony was on the point of abandoning the 
settlement, and an earthquake had shaken the town, 
they believed that it was a warning from God, and 
Bradford wrote that "ye Lord would hereby show ye 
signs of his displeasure." We know that these English 
yeomen had far less business ability than the other col- 
onists; that Weston and Sherley easily deceived them; 
that it took them several years to discover the duplic- 
ity of Allerton. Yet, notwithstanding all this, their 
prosperity during those years when their religious 
convictions were the basis of their lives, was greater 
than that of any of the other colonists. We know 
that John Pierce, claiming the Pilgrims' grant as his 
own, fitted out an expedition to take possession of their 
country; that the storms which he encountered brought 
him such losses that he was willing to turn over the 
grant to the colonists; that the three men who de- 
frauded them — Weston, Sherley, and Allerton — each 
met with financial disaster. Can we speculate from 
this that some avenging Nemesis was associated with 
their destiny? 

Believing themselves to be under the guidance of 
God, these Plymouth Fathers had taken the first steps 
in changing the heresies of the times into orthodoxies, 
and, before the contest ended, two great doctrines were 



294 OUR PLYMOUTH FOREFATHERS 

established : one that the ultimate authority of the State 
was not in the king nor even in the House of Lords nor 
in the House of Commons, but in the English people; 
the other that the ultimate authority of the Church was 
not in the pope, or in prelates, convocations, or synods, 
but in the Christian people. Their twelve years' resi- 
dence in Holland had brought them into contact with 
other sects of Christians, thus giving them a more cath- 
olic spirit than that of the Puritans of England. This 
had made them more liberal in feeling and more tolerant 
in practice than the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay 
whose life in England had been embittered by the 
strife of contending factions in the Established Church. 
In consequence of this there is now perpetuated, 
not the aristocratic Congregationalism of the Puritans 
of the Bay, but the democratic Congregationalism 
established at Plymouth. From their doctrines of 
religious freedom Congregationalism has been founded, 
and from Congregationalism has come our civil form 
of government. As has been said of these people, " In 
the pursuit of religious freedom they established civil 
liberty, and, meaning only to found a church, gave 
birth to a nation, and, in settling a town, commenced 
an empire." This will always be their distinguisliing 
work for mankind, for it is not so much what they 
achieved as what they suggested wliich has given 
them fame throughout the world. 

The men of the May Flower, by what they dared 
and suffered, are pre-eminent among those guided by 



A PEOPLE OF DESTINY 295 

God's providence in nation-making, but, having lived 
in the atmosphere of the seventeenth century, they 
necessarily partook of its narrowness, notwithstanding 
religious forces were developing in them those sterling 
qualities which made them able to add much to the 
world's progress. Judged by the light of to-day, it 
cannot be denied that they made serious mistakes; 
that they had a certain intellectual narrowness which 
showed itself in a foolish contempt for the minor 
elegances of life, letters, and manners. This was owing 
partly to the conditions under which they lived and 
partly to the distance of their settlement from the 
older centres of civilization. But when all has been 
said, and due allowance made for all possible draw- 
backs, there remain those high moral qualities which 
made it possible for them to estabhsh a colony which 
became a standard for our later colonies — colonies 
which have developed from their simple rules of govern- 
ment into a nation with a complex system of govern- 
ment, not yet at the summit of its greatness. 

"Winning by inches, 
Holding by clinches. 
Slow to contention, but slower to quit; 

"Now and then failing, 
Never once quailing. 
Let us thank God for our Saxon grit.** 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Aborigines, The 175, 203, 209, 241, 260 

ACHTERBURGWAL StRASSE, AMSTERDAM 36 

Act of Supremacy, The 6 

Alden, John. 

One of the May Flower emigrants 71 

One of the " Undertakers " 144 

His residence in Duxbury 178, 214 

His trip to the Kennebec post 186 

His arrest in Boston 187 

Alexander, Son of Massasoit 229, 230 

Allerton, Isaac. 

One of the May Flower emigrants 71 

Son-in-law of William Brewster 163 

Made assistant to the governor 76 

His trips to England as agent of the colony . 141, 144, 146, 155, 

156, 163, 164. 165, 166 

One of the " Undertakers " 144 

His trickery 155,163,293 

His dismissal as agent of the colony 174 

His trading post on the Maine coast 174 

His last years and death 174 

Allotment of Cattle, see Cattle. 

Allotment of Land. 

The first allotment 69 

The acre allotment for one year 104 

The acre allotment for three years 120 

The twenty-acre allotment 153 

The allotment to residents 225 

The thirty-acre allotment to freeholders 281 

Almshouse 281 

Amsterdam, Holland. 

The Reformed Church in 36, 37 

The Separatists' Church in 28, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41 

The home of the Pilgrims in 35, 36, 37 

The departure of the Pilgrims from 37 

Andrews, Joseph 155, 199 

Andros, Sir Edmund. 

Royal governor 244 

Put under arrest in Boston 245 

Anglicans, The 9 

Anne Boleyn. 

Wife of Henry VIH 5 

Mother of Queen Elizabeth . 12 



298 INDEX 

PAGE 

Anne, Queen of England 246 

Anne, the Ship 

Arrival of 106 

Departure of 109 

Cargo of 109 

Complaints sent to England in 112 

Arcadl\ 246 

Arminius, Jacobus 37, 40 

Arrivals at Plymouth. 

The :May Flower 66 

The Fortune 82 

The Charity 90 

The Swan 90 

The Plantation 106 

The Anne 106 

The Little James 106 

The Jacob 132 

The Handmaid 166 

Ashley, Edward 164 

Augusta, INIaine 155 

Austerfield, England 20, 24 

Babblers, see Lollards. 

Babw^orth, England 26 

Bancroft, Richard 28 

B.U>TISM. 

In the Massachusetts Bay colony 161 

Controversy in the Plymouth colony over 214 

B.vRBARA, Wife of Myles St.\ndish 106 

Barley 276 

Barndesteeg Strasse, Amsterdam 36 

Barnstable, Massachusetts. 

Captain Dermer's exploration of the harbor of 46 

Corn stacked at 93 

Expedition to 94 

Settlement at 213 

Barrowe, Henry. 

His doctrine of toleration 16, 17 

His martyrdom 17, 18, 19, 139 

Bastions, The. 

To protect the stockade 86 

Location of 113, 115 

Sentinels at 86 

Beacon Hill, Blackstone's Settlement on 135 

Beans obtained from the Indians 92 

Be^uchamp, John 155, 200 



INDEX 299 

PAGE 

Beaver Skins. 

The first seen 73 

Shipments to England of 83, 189, 191 

Loan of, to Weston 103 

See also Furs. 

Beer, the Common Beverage 70, 264 

Bench, The 213 

Bible, The. 

The reading of 6, 7, 9, 10 

The reading of, forbidden 11 

Restoration of 13 

The effect of reading 9, 10 

Bill of Rights, The 247 

Billington, John. 

One of the May Flower emigrants 71, 166 

His execution 166 

Widow of, put in the stocks 200 

Blackbirds Troublesome in the Colony 279, 281 

Blacksmith Shop 196 

Blackstone, William 135, 169 

Block Island, Narragansett Bay 201,203 

Book of Common Prayer, The. 

Compulsory use of 11, 13 

Petition for its revision 27 

Not used in the Massachusetts colonies 161 

Boston, England. 

Pilgrims arrested when sailing from 29 

Imprisonment of Pilgrims in 29 

Boston, Massachusetts. 

Blackstone's Plantation 169 

The Puritan settlement at 169 

The commerce of 173,191 

Roger Williams's home in 175 

Alden's arrest in 187 

Conference in, concerning the French at Castine 193 

Treaty with Narragansetts signed at 204 

Articles of Confederation adopted at 221 

English commission sent to 229 

Tories in 243 

Letter to Plymouth from 249 

Vote of Plymouth sent to 250 

See also Massachusetts Bay colony. 

Boston Harbor. 

First called Massachusetts Bay 79 

Indian trails to 260 

Plymouth colonists' first trip to 79 



300 INDEX 

PAGE 

Boston Harbor, Continued. 

Expedition for corn to 86, 92 

Trading trips to 173 

Boundaries. 

Of Plymouth colony grant 213 

Of Kennebec River grant 164 

Bradford, William. 

One of the founders of the Scrooby church 20, 24 

Warrant for his arrest 28 

One of the May Flower emigrants 70 

On the first exploring expedition 57 

On the third exploring expedition 61 

His wife drowned in Provincetown Harbor 71 

Made governor 76 

His house at Plymouth 116 

His treatment of insubordination 84, 124, 228 

His reply to the Narragansetts 85 

His leniency to Squanto 88 

On the expedition along the Cape for corn 92, 93 

His advice to the Weymouth settlers 97 

His loan of furs to Weston 103 

His second marriage 106 

Made councillor under Gorges 110 

His daily work 117 

Elected governor against his protest 119 

His connection with the Lj-ford trial . . 123, 124, 125, 126, 127 

His trip to Monhegan 140 

His trip to Orleans Bay 142 

His correspondence with De Rassieres 144, 146 

One of the "Undertakers" 144 

His letter to IMorton 154 

Endicott's letter to 158 

The Warwick grant to 165 

His letter to the Bay colony in reference to fishing or trading 

within the Plymouth territory 174 

His first visit to Boston 176 

One of the Executive Council 181 

Sent to Boston to arrange for a trading post on the Con- 
necticut River 183 

One of the commissioners to settle the boundary line between 

the Bay colony and Ph^nouth 213 

One of the connnissioners of the New England Confederacy . 228 

His belief in God's guidance 212, 228, 293 

His transfer of the Warwick grant to the Plymouth colony . . 213 

One of the four great leaders of the colony 227, 229 

His death 227 



I 



INDEX 301 

PAGE 

Bradford, Wn.LL\M, Continued. 

His character 227, 228 

A born diplomat 128 

A man of destiny 229 

The world his debtor 41 

Extracts from his journal, 42, 44, 55, 51, 61, 62, 66, 68, 76, 80, 81, 
91, 103, 104, 105, 107, 119, 120, 121, 123, 124, 149, 153, 154, 158, 
162, 166, 174, 177, 178, 182, 184 192, 193, 198, 199, 208, 210, 
212, 213, 214, 216, 223, 226, 329. 

Bread, The Lack of, in the Colony 105 

Brewster, Fear. 

Daughter of William Brewster 106 

Her arrival in the Anne 106 

Her marriage to Isaac AUerton 163 

Brewster, Jonathan. 

Eldest son of William Brewster 82 

His arrival in the Fortune 82 

His removal to Duxbury 178 

In charge of the Connecticut fort 194 

Brewster, Patience. 

Daughter of William Brewster 106 

Her arrival in the Anne 106 

Her marriage to Thomas Prence 186 

Brewster, Williajm. 

His boyhood and life at court 20, 22, 24 

One of the founders of the Scrooby church 20, 24 

Church services held in his house 20 

Warrant for his arrest 28 

His imprisonment in Boston, England 29 

His employment at Leyden 40 

Made elder of the church 41 

One of the May Flower emigrants 70 

His home at Plymouth 116 

His daily life 118, 223 

Robinson's letter to 113 

One of the "Undertakers" 144 

His farm in Duxbury 214 

His belief in God's guidance 223 

One of the four great leaders of the colony 229 

His death 223 

His character 223 

A man of destiny 229 

The world his debtor 41 

Brick Manufacture 281 

Bridges 173, 196, 267, 281 

Bridgewater, Massachusetts. 

Attack on, by the Narragansetts 238 



1 



302 INDEX 



PAGE 

Brooke, Lord 186, 188 

Brookfield, M.\ssachusetts 234 

Brown Island Sho.\ls 195 

Brown, Peter 71 

Browne, Robert. 
The father of Congregationalism 14, 15, 16 

Brownists, The 

Why so called 14 

In Amsterdam 36 

Their controversies 37, 40 

The Pilgrim Fathers called Brownists 91, 133, 161 

Buckled Shoes, The use of 118,265 

Buckskin Clothing 264 

Burial Hill, see Fort Hill. 

BURYING-GROUND, ThE 70, 76 

Butter. 

Want of, in the colony 120 

Plentiful after the first few years 264 

Used in trading 149 

The minister's salary partly paid in 276 

Buzzards Bay. 

The territory of the Narragansetts 85 

Trading post on 143 

The Dutch not to trade along 144 

Calendar, The Change made in the 68, 119 

Calvin, John 4, 9, 10 

Cannons. 

First mounted on a platform on the hill 68, 76 

Later mounted on the roof of the church-fort 115 

Four cannons at the junction of the two streets 115 

The fortification supplied with 231 

Canvas Clothing 264 

Cambridge, Engl.and 14, 16, 17, 167 

Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

First settlement at 169 

War \evy for fort at 170 

Emigration to the Connecticut valley from 198 

Canonchet. 

Successor to Canonicus as chief of the Narragansetts . . , 204 

His defiance 238 

Tomahawked by the Mohegan Indians 239 

C.\NONICUS. 

Chief of the Narragansetts 85 

Rattlesnake skin filled with bullets sent to 86 

C-^JOTERBURY, Archbishop of 187, 219 



INDEX 303 

PAGE 

Cape Ann. 

First attempted settlement at 45 

Early fishing station at 130 

The Plymouth colonists' fishing stage at 121, 134, 137 

Cape Cod. 

The discovery of 45, 291 

The soil of . . 57, 212 

Called by the Indians "Paomet" 78 

The Dermer exploration of 46 

Arrival of the Pilgrims at 55, 229 

The Pilgrim's early explorations of, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 

65, 66, 67 or 57-67 
First expedition around 92 

Cape Cod Bay. 

First exploration of 45, 46 

Cape Cod Indians, The. 

Those first seen by the Pilgrims 58 

The Pilgrims' first encounter w^ith 62 

Confederacy of 73 

Traffic with 81,118,261 

Conspiracy of 98 

Allies of the settlers 102 

A part of the community 266 

See also Indians. 

Cape Sable, Nova Scotia 218 

Captain's Hill, Duxbury 225 

Carver, John. 

Sent from Holland to England to obtain grant of land . . . 47, 48 
Sent from Holland to England to arrange for the voyage ... 49 

One of the May Flower emigrants 70 

On the third exploring expedition 61 

Chosen governor 72 

Death of 76, 228 

Castine, Maine. 

Plymouth trading post at 164 

Plymouth trading post at, plundered by the French .... 174 

Plymouth trading post at, taken by the French 191 

Ineffectual attempt to retake it 192 

Catechism, The 272 

Cattle. 

The first in the land brought over in the Charity 123 

The second shipment received 134 

Allotment of 146 

The third shipment received 167 

Shipment to the Massachusetts Bay colony of 160 

Pasturage for 121,173,215 



304 , INDEX 

PAGE 

Cattle, Continued. 

Purchase from the Massachusetts Bay colony of 173 

The raising of 173,212 

Chaleur, Bay of 47 

Characteristics of the People, see New England Type. 
Charity, the Ship. 

Arrival of 90 

Trip to Virginia of 90 

Return to England of 91 

Return from England of 120 

Return to England of 123 

Charles I. 

Made king 133 

Tyranny of 138 

Charter to the Puritans given by 160 

A Commission to govern New England appointed by . 187, 219 

Death of \ . . . 229 

Charles II. 

Made king 229 

The New England colonists refuse to ask aid of 240 

Opposition of, to the colonists 229 

Death of 243 

Charles Rr-er, The. 

John Smith's knowledge of 81 

First visit of Plymouth colonists to 80 

First settlement on 133 

Charlestowx, Massachusetts. 

Fii-st settlement at 135 

Massachusetts Bay settlement at 169 

Seat of ^Massachusetts Bay government 169 

Chath.vm, Massachusetts 92 

Chauxcy, Rev. Charles 214. 215 

Cheese 149,264 

Chiltox, Mary 71 

Christmas Day 68.84 

Church. Coloxel Bexj.\^iin. 

In command of Plymouth troops in war against King Philip, 239 

In command of expedition in Arcadia 246 

Church of Exglaxd. The. 

Separation of, from the Roman Catholic Church 6,12 

The doctrines of. questioned 13, 14 

The Puritans members of 15 

The Separatists not members of 8, 14. 16 

Attempts to enforce the doctrines of. in Plymouth, 112, 121. 122. 

131, 189 
Respect of the Separatist for the religion of 131 



INDEX 305 

PAGE 

Church of Engl.\nd, The, Continued. 

Factions in 8 

Massachusetts Puritans give up the ceremonies of . . . 161, 162 
Right to vote in Plymouth colony not refused to members of, 128, 

U5, 268 

Church of Rome, The 2, 3, 4 

Church, The Plymouth, see Congregationalism. 

Church Independence. 

In England , 2, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16 

In Holland 28, 36, 37 

In the Bay Colony 161 

In the Plymouth colony 128, 145 

Church INIembership. 

Meaning of 269 

A separate membership in each church of the Plymouth 

colony 270 

A prerequisite to citizenshij) in the Bay colony 160 

Not necessary for citizenship in the Plymouth colony, 128, 145, 268 

Cider 267 

Civil Laws, see Laws. 

Civil Rights. 

The doctrine of 17, 44 

Compact for, in the Plvmouth colony 56 

Development of, in the Plymouth colony, 44, 197, 268, 286, 289, 294 

Development of, in the Bay colony 167, 168, 170 

The Bill of Rights 247 

Cl.\]vis. 

In Plymouth Harbor 67 

The abundance of 105 

A principal article of food 89, 104, 107, 117, 264 

Clapboards 81, 83 

Clark, John 64 

Clark's Island. 

First landing on 64 

Settlement on, considered 67 

Refusal to deed it to the crown 244 

Class Distinctions 265 

Clothes. 

Different kinds worn 264, 265 

Cloth for, sent to the Plymouth colony 134 

Supply of, sent to the Bay colony 160 

Clyfton, Rev. Richard 24,37 

Codfish. 

Early trips to Grand Banks for 45 

Name of Cape Cod given because of abundance of ... . 45 
See also Fish. 



1 



306 INDEX 



PAGE 

Coffee Unknown 70,264 

CoHAssET, Massachusetts 213 

Coinage of Money 242 

Cole's Hill. 

Graves on "70 

The first houses on 69, 75 

Breastwork on 282 

Colonial Courts 226,269 

Commerce 132, 173, 191 

Commissioners sent to Boston to Ex.xaiine into the Ad- 
ministration OF Justice, the Treatment of the 

Indians and the System of Education 229 

Commissioners appointed to govern New England . . 109, 187 

Commissioners for Pl.\ntations 189 

Common, The, or Tr.\ining Grounds 281 

CoMMOJnVE.^LTH, ThE SETTLEMENT CRYSTALLIZING INTO A, 81, 268 

Communism 104 

Compact made in the May Flower 56 

Compact with the London Stockholders 49 

Conant, Roger. 

One of the Plymouth colonists 130 

In charge of the Dorsetshire settlement at Gloucester . 130, 134 
Founder of the Salem settlement 130, 134, 157 

Concord, Massachusetts 257 

Conformists. 

Meaning of 9 

Persecution of 11, 12 

Congregationalism. 

The beginning of 2 

The real founders of 14, 20 

Martvrs to 17, 18, 19 

The development of the doctrines of . 2, 3, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 

19, 20, 26<> 

The keynote of the Pl}aiiouth colony 269 

No formal creed of 122, 131 

Broadness of 131, 139 

Constitution of 269 

Opposition to the, of the Plymouth colony, 112, 121, 122, 131, 189 
The Plymouth and INIassachusetts Bay doctrines of . . 162, 294 
The doctrines of, adopted by the Puritans of the Bay colony . 162 

Connecticut. 

Claimed by the Dutch 184 

Plymouth trading post in 183 

The colonies in 194, 198, 204, 219 

Attack on settlers of, by the Pequots 204 

Settlers of, attack the Pequots 207 



INDEX 307 

PAGE 

Connecticut, Continued. 

Settlers of, assume Statehood 205 

The New Haven Republic 219 

The colonists of, members of the New England Confederacy, 220 

Number of settlers in 221 

Troops of, in King Philip's War 235 

Connecticut River, The. 

Known as Fresh River 182 

First trading trip of Plymouth colonists to 183 

Connecticut River Indians. 
Attempt of, to form an alliance with the Plymouth colonists . 182 
Land purchased by the Plymouth colonists from the .... 194 

Small-pox among the 184 

See also Nipmucks. 
Conscience. 

Dictations of 1, 2, 9, 287, 289 

Separation from the Church of England because of . . . 1, 287 
Sacrifices of the Pilgrims because of .... 1,44,286,287,288 

Constable Watch 283 

Continental Congress 256 

Conventicles 16 

Cook, Francis 71 

Cooper, Humility 71 

Corduroy Clothing 264 

Corn. 

The discovery of 58, 291 

Indian cornfields at Plymouth 66, 67 

The planting of 76,116,117 

First crop of 81, 82 

Scarcity of 86,80,91, 104,105 

Expedition for 8(), 92 

Stealing of, by the settlers 91,92,104 

Purchase of, from the Indians 92, 93 

Stealing of, from the Indians 97 

Storehouse for 89,90,105,116 

Crop of, not to be divided among the new arrivers 107 

Annual contribution of, into the public treasury 108 

Cultivation of 119,137,143,153,177 

Supply of 109,119 

A daily article of food 264 

Used in place of money 115,11!) 

Scarcity of. in the Bay colony 169 

Large profits in growing 177, 212 

Narragansett and Pequot supply of, seized 203, 237 

Used for taxes and town expenses 215 

The minister's salary partly paid in 276 

See also Seed Corn. 



308 INDEX 



PAGE 

CoRNWALLis, General 258 

Cotton, Rev. John 276 

Council, The, see Executive Council. 

Council for New Engl.^jvd, The. 

Royal charter of 47 

Grant to Plymouth colony from 83 

Attempts to get aid from 138 

Grant to Massachusetts Bay colony from 156 

Admiral of 106 

The governor-general of , . , . 109 

Courts, see Laws. 

COVERDALE, MiLES 10 

Crackstone, John 71 

Cradock, Matthew le^ 

Cromwell, Oliver S^G 

Crows troublesome in the Colony 281 

Cushman, Robert. 

Sent from Hollan(l to London to obtain grant of land ... 47, 48 

Sent from Holland to London to arrange for voyage 49 

Vovage abandoned bv 55 

Arrival at Plymouth of 83 

Return to England of 83 

Letters from 120, 133 

Convevance of land at Cape Ann to 120,136 

Death* of 138 

Customs, see Life in the Colony and New Engl.\nd Types. 

Dartmoltth, Massachusetts 234 

Davison, \Yilli.\m 22, 24 

Deacons 270 

Deacon Seats 275, 28^1 

Deer, see Venison. 

Deerfield, Massachusetts 234, 238, 246 

DeclaratiOxV of Rights 197,247 

Delft Haven. Holland 50,51 

Deputies, The 213 

Dermer, Captain Thomas 46, 74 

Destiny of the Colonists, The. 

Relio-ious courage because of belief in 85 

Special proofs of 60,63, 95, 108, 212, 291, 292, 293 

Brewster's belief in 223 

Bradford's belief in 212,228,293 

The colonists' belief in 60,91,109,263,291 

Discovery, the Ship 91 

Drv'iNE Right of Kings, The 167 

Doane, John 181 



INDEX 309 

PAGE 

Dorchester, Massachusetts. 

Settlement at 169 

Families from, settle in Connecticut 194 

Vessel from, wrecked near Plymouth 195 

Dorset, England 130, 134 

DoTEN, Edward 71 

Dover, New H.\mpshire 200 

Drums, People CALLED TO Church BY 118,274 

Drunkenness not Common 2G7 

Ducking Stools 2(j9 

Ducks 81, 104, 117, 204 

Dudley, Joseph 243 

Dudley, Thomas 168 

Dutch, The. 

Influence of, on the Pilgrims in Holland 43 

Settlement of, on Manhattan Island . . . . 48, 143, 172, 18>, 218 
Negotiations with, for a settlement on Manhattan Island . 48 

Trade with 144,188 

Agreement with 147 

Use of wampum by 147 

Connecticut valley claimed by 184 

Trading post of, at Hartford 183, 184 

Kindness of, to the Plymouth settlers on the Connecticut . . . 185 

Encroachments of 215, 218 

The power of 219 

New England confederacy against 218, 220 

Dutch Reformed Church, The 36 

DuxBURY, Massachusetts. 

First settlement of 178 

The town of 213, 224 

Earthquakes 212 

East Boston, Massachusetts 135 

East Harbor, Cape Cod 58, 59 

Eastham, Massachusetts 61, 92, 94, 214 

Eaton, Francis 71 

Ecclesiastical Courts 9 

Edward VI 10 

Eel River, Cape Cod 153,224 

Elders 270 

Elm-trees 266 

Ely 71 

Endicott, John. 

Deputy governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony . . 158, 160 
Favorable reports of the Bay colony sent by, to England . 160 
Letter of, to Bradford 158 



310 INDEX 

PAGE 

ExDicoTT, John. CoJithuied. 

At head of expedition against the Xarragansetts -203 

One of the commissioners to settle the boundary Une between 
the Bay colony and Plymouth 513 

Episcopacy, see Church of England. 

Episcopius, Simon 37 

Essex County, M.\ssachusetts 157, 235 

Executive Council, The. 

Development of 119,198,1212 

Bradford one of 181 

Brence one of 180 

Fairfield, Connecticut 209 

F.\mine never in the Colont: 107 

Farms. 

The first farming done 76 

First allotment of 10-4 

Fences built and orchards planted on the 173, 177 

Poor soil of the 212 

Living on. instead of in N-illages 173 

Federal Commissioners, The 221, 230 

Felt, Manufacture of 279 

Fire-arms. 

Use of, unknown to the Indians 63, 154- 

Indians soon experts in the use of 263 

Sale of. to the Indians prohibited 154? 

Each householder required to have 221 

Supply of. sent from England to the Massachusetts Bay colony. 160 

Vote of Plymouth in reference to supply of 283 

First Encounter, the Pl-\ce so c.uxed 63 

First Sickness, The 72 

Fish. 

The princn>al food 84. 89. 104. 107, 2G4 

Spawning-bed for 116 

Fishing a dailv occupation 105 

Drying of . * 121, 137 

Fishing unprofitable as a business 140 

Fishing Fleet. The. 

Earlv vovages of, to Grand Banks 45 

Amiiial trip of, to Maine coast 89, 103, 105, 138 

The Plymouth fishing fleet 196 

The fleet not allowed to sail because of impending war . . 283 

Fishing Stage at Gloucester 121, 134, 137 

Fletcher 136 

Fleet Prison, England 190 

Flip 267 



INDEX 311 

PAGE 

Foot-stoves 282 

Ford, The, across the Town Brook 74, 115 

Fore-seats in the Meeting-houses 275 

Forks, The Use of, unknown 204 

Fort, The Plymouth. 

Description of 115 

Partial completion of 90 

Used as a place of worship 115,118,125,292 

Sentries at 125 

Fort Hill. 

Its favorable location 66 

Cannon on 68, 76 

Watch-tower on 76 

Church-fort on 115 

Stockade around 113 

Fortifications on 231 

Fortune, the Ship 82, 83, 104 

Flounders of our Republic, The 20, 33, 50, 57, 06 

Free Institutions 44, 56, 197, 268, 286, 289, 294 

Freedom of Religion, see Church Independence. 
Freemen, The. 

INIeaning of the name 278 

Rights of 278 

All laws to be made by 198 

French, The. 

In Florida 43 

In Nova Scotia 75 

First cargo from Plymouth to England captured by ... . 83 

Boundary dispute with 218 

Encroachments of 193,215,218 

Castine trading post plundered by 174 

Castine trading post seized by 191 

Ijctter to the Bay colony in reference to 192 

New England Confederacy against 220 

Conspiracy of, with the Indians 157, 246 

Expedition against, in Nova Scotia 245 

War in Canada against 247 

Fresh River, see Connecticut River. 
Fuller, Dr. Samuel. 

One of the May Flower emigrants 71 

Arrival of wife of 106 

Sent for by the Bay colony 158 

Influence of, in the Bay colony 160 

Fundamental Law, The 289 

Furs. 

The first brought by the Indians to the colony 73 



312 INDEX 

PAGE 

Furs, Continued. 

The first shipment to England of 83 

Storehouse for 116 

Wampum used in trade for 1-48, 149 

Shipments to England of 83, 189, 191 

Large profits in trading for 140, 188, 199 

See also Beaver Skins. 

Gainsborough, England 19, 157, 291 

Gallows Hill, Plymouth 'i'io 

g.\ivibrel-roof houses 172 

Game. 

One of the principal articles of food 264 

The abundance of . 104 

Gardner, Richard 71 

Gener.ajls, a Faction so called 108 

Gener.\l Court, The. 

Of the Bay colony 170 

Of the Plymouth colony 212 

Vote of, in reference to the boundary of the Plymouth colony, 213 

Tithing-men appointed by 272 

Vote of , that every man have a gun and powder 221 

George 1 246 

George II 247 

George III 247 

Gibbets 209 

Girling, Captain 192 

Gloucester, Massachusetts. 

Dorsetshire fishing stiition at 130 

Grant of land at, to the Plymouth colony 120 

Plymouth fish drying stage at 121, 134, 137 

Attempt at salt making at 121 

Goats. 

The first in the Plymouth colony 117 

Purchase of, at INIonhegan 140 

Allotment of 146 

The first in the Bay colony 160 

The supply of 215, 264 

Goodwin, Elder 193 

Gorges, Robert, Governor-General of the New England 

Colonies 109, 110, 111 

GrORGEs, Sir Ferdinando. 

At the head of the North Virginia Company 47 

Nominated as governor-general of the New England colonies, 189 

GosNOLD, Bartholomew 45, 291 

Gospels, The, see New Testament. 

Governor and Council, see Executive Council. 



I 



INDEX 313 

PAGE 

Grants of Land. 

The original grant south of the Hudson River 49, 56 

The grant to Pierce 83, 144, 165, 243 

The Warwick grant to Bradford 165 

Transfer of the Pierce grant to the colonists 293 

The Cape Ann grant 120, 136 

The Kennebec River grant 155 

The Bay colony grant 156 

Royal Charter to the Bay Company 160 

The Bradford grant transferred to the colonists 213 

See Royal Charter. 

Grapes 264 

Great Meadow Creek, Cape Cod 62 

Greene, Richard 91,97 

Greenwood, John 17, 18, 19, 139 

Grimsby, England 30, 32 

(jRiST-MiLLs 196, 266, 279 

(jroton, Massachusetts 238 

Guiana 43 

Guildford, Connecticut 219 

Gunpowder. 

King James's proclamation prohibiting the sale of, to the 

Indians 154 

Sale of, to the Indians 150 

The supply of, in the Bay colony 160 

A supply of, to be kept by the colonists 221 

Powder-house for 282 

Vote of the town to purchase the supply in the settlement . . 283 
Gurnet Head, Cape Cod 66, 75, 86 

Hadley, Massachusetts 234 

Handmaid, the Ship 166 

Hartford, Connecticut. 

Dutch trading post at 183, 184 

Puritan settlements near 194, 198, 204 

Harvard College 215 

Hatchets 149,225 

Hatherly, Timothy 1.55, 200 

Henry VHI 5,9,11,22 

Herring 116 

Hewes, Captain 131 

Hickman, Rose 19 

Hides 282 

High Commission Courts 167 

Hingham, Massachusetts 213 



314 INDEX 

PAGE 
HOBOMOK. 

A pinesse of his tribe 78 

Joins the colony 78 

Interpreter 86 

Land given to 1''20 

His belief in the white man's God 109 

HocKiNGS, John 186, 187, 194 

Holland. 

Freedom of religion in 36, 37, 39 

Emigration of Robert Browne and his church to 1 1 

Emigration of John Smith and his church to 20 

Emigration of the Pilgrims to 1,3, 34., 35 

Life of the Pilgrims in 36, 37, 40, 41, 42, 43, 51, 286 

Emigration of the Pilgruus from 51 

Holmes, Captain Willl\jvi 183 

Hooker, Rev. Thom.\s 198 

Hopkins, Stephen 71, 76 

Horses. 

Purchase of, from the Bay colony 173 

In common use 277 

Reckless driving of 277 

Town pound for 280 

Horse Blocks 274 

Howland, John. 

One of the May Flower emigrants 71 

One of the "I'ndertakers" 144 

In charge of the Kennebec post 186 

Huckleberries 264 

HUDDLESTON, JOHN 89, 292 

Hudson River 46, 56 

Huguenots, The French 43 

Hull, England 30 

Hull, Massachusetts 130, 162 

HiTMBER, The River 30, 32, 33. 34 

Hunt, Captain Thom.\s 73, 74 

Huss, John 4 

Idle, The River 32 

Indented Servants 135 

Independence, The Spirit of. 

Among the Pilgrim Fathers 44, 257, 258, 289 

Among the Puritans in England 167, 168 

Among the Puritans in the Bay colony 161, 170 

Gro^\^h of, in the colonies 220, 247, 256 

War, the results of 257, 259 

Independents, The, see Separatists. 



INDEX 315 

PAGE 

Indians, The. -.rre m^ acin 

The real owners of the land 175, 194, iJO 

The homes of :Joi 

Not allowed fire-arms 1^^ 

The mode of warfare of ^"1 

Profitable trading with ■^^^' ■^'^^' ll?' ?aq 

The use of wampum by 147, 14» 

A part of the community ^oo, Ml 

Indian wars ^^^' ^^J 

Trade neglected with ^J^ 

Overthrow of ^^" 

See also Cape Cod Indians, 
" " Connecticut River Indians. 

" Maine Indians. 
" " Massachusetts Bay Indians. 
" " Mohegan Indians. 
" " Mohawk Indians. 
" ** Monhegan Indians. 
" " Narragansett Indians. 
" " Nauset Indians. 

" Neponset Indians. 
'* " Nipmuck Indians. 
" " Pamet Indians. 
" " Patuxet Indians. 
" " Pequot Indians. 
" " Pocasset Indians. 
" " Wampanoag Indians. 
Indian Conspiracies. 

The first Cape Cod conspiracy 98, lU^ 

The Narragansett conspiracy 1^9 

The Pequot conspiracy 204 

Fears of a general uprising 222 

King Philip's War • 234 

Ipswich, Massachusetts 195 

Isles of Shoals l^"* 



Jacob, the Ship 132, 134 

Jamaica Rum ^"' 

James I. 

Made king ; : • *• zL 

Charter granted by, to colonize North America 4b 

Sale of fire-arms to Indians prohibited by 154 

James II. 

Made king 2,44 

Abdication of throne by 244 



316 INDEX 



PAGE 

J.\MES, THE Ship Little, 

Arrival of 106 

I'sed as a trading; boat 109 

Return to England of l'-28 

Arrival of, on a fishing trip IS^- 

James River, Virginia 75 

j.v.mestown 263 

Jerome of Prague 4 

JoxEs, Captain Thom.vs. 

Captain of the May Flower 57 

His refusal to search for a place for the settlement .... 57 

On second exploring expedition 59, 61 

Brutality of . . / 70 

Return to England of 75 

JoxEs River, Cape Cod 153, '■2'-24' 

Jury Tri.axs 113 

Kennebec Rfver. The. 

First settlement on 45 

Profitable trading on 141 

(xrant of land on 155 

Trading {xist on 164 

Trailing post on, given up ^l^ 

KlLLIXGHOME, EnGL-\ND 30 

King Philip. 

Chief of the Wampanoags 230 

Preparations for war by 230 

Beiiinninir of the war 234 



Conspiracy of, with the Narragansetts 230. 



yo 



Conspiracy of, with the Nipniucks 230, 234, 235 

End of the war 239 

Death of . . • ■ , '2^9 

His wife and son prisoners 240 

A patrii^t of his race 241 

King's Highway 280 

Kingston, M.vssachusetts 67, 281 

Kl.VGSTON, CoNNEtTRlT 235 

Knee-breeches 118, 265 

Knives 149 

Knox, John 4. 9, 10 

Lancaster. Massachi^setts 238, 246 

Latimer, Hugh 9 

liATHAM. William 71 

Laud, Archbishop. 

His treatment of the Puritans in England 159, 167 



INDEX 317 



PAGE 

Laud, Archbishop, Continued. 

Winslow committed to prison by 190 

Downfall of 21G 

Laws. 

English laws the first used 197, 268 

The first enacted 5iS, llti 

Based on Bible doctrines 2G8 

The first statute book 113,2(59 

The new code 198 

Revisions of the 198 

In reference to strangers 277, 280 

In reference to cattle and horses 277, 279 

In reference to idleness 280 

In reference to Sunday travel 280 

In reference to pipe-smoking in church 275 

Leather 282 

Leister, Edward 71 

Le Tour, The French Governor 218 

Leverett, John 243 

Levitt, Christopher 110 

Lexington, Massachusetts 257 

Leyden, Holland. 

The Pilgrim's settlement in 37 

Life in 40, 41 

Departure from 52, GO 

Those left in, kept from joining the colonists 113, 133 

Arrangements made for bringing over those left in 145 

Arrival of the second body of emigrants from 163 

Arrival of the third body of emigrants from 165 

Arrival of those left in 166 

Leyden Street, Plymouth 68, 75, 115 

Life in the Colony . . 107, 117, 118, 173, 263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 
268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275, 276, 277 

Lincolnshire, England 15(), 157, 291 

Lion, the Ship 165, 176, 179, 180 

Liquors 267, 282 

Lobsters. 

One of the principal articles of food 89, 104, 107, 117 

Abimdance of 264 

Locusts 182 

Log Houses, The. 

Land cleared for 68 

Location of 68 

The building of, begun 69 

Not completed because of fever 69, 72 

The first built 69, 75 



318 INDEX 

PAGE 

Log Houses, The, Continued. 

Description of 115 

Protected by stockade 86 

Additional ones built 94, 115 

Fire among Ill 

Thatched roofs replaced with paling 152 

Frame houses in place of 172 

Lollards, The 4 

London Company, The, see South Virginia Comp.^ny. 
London Stockholders, see Stockholders. 

Long Isl.^nd Sound 144 

Long Parliaivient 216, 219 

Lord's Day, The. 

Work to end at three o'clock on Saturday to prepare for . 271 

Strict observance of 271 

Marching to church on 118 

Fines imposed for work on 271 

Tithing-raen appointed to compel observance of 272 

Tickets required if travel necessary on 280 

Lords of Trade 242 

Lord's Supper 161 

Luther, IVLvrtin 4, 9, 10 

Lutherans 4, 131 

Lyford, Rev. John. 

Clergyman of the Church of England 122 

Arrivkl of 122 

Conspiracy of 123 

Episcopal services held by 125 

Trial of 125, 127 

Treachery of 129, 130 

Dismissal of 128 

His residence at Hull 130 

His residence at Gloucester 130 

His residence at Salem 130 

His residence in Virginia 130 

M-A,\s, The River, Holland 50 

Machias, Maine 174 

Maine. 

Fishing fleet along coast of ... 73, 89, 101, 103, 105, 138, 144 

Standish's trip to 105 

Fishing trip to 129 

Trading trips to 137 

Grant of land in 155, 164 

Trading posts in 146, 155. 164 

The Massachusetts and Maine colonies under one government, 245 



INDEX 319 



PAGE 

Maine Indians, The. 

Murder of Dorchester men by 179 

Allies of the French 246 

Manchester, Massachusetts 200 

Manhattan Island, see The Dutch. 

Marblehead, Massachusetts 174 

Martin, Christopher 49 

Marprelate Tracts 18 

Marshfield, Massachusetts 213, 224 

Mary Queen of Scots 24 

Mason, Captain John 205, 207, 208 

Massachusetts Bay. 

Boston Harbor known as 79 

Settlements on 130, 135, 157, 169, 177 

Massachusetts Bay Company, The. 

Grant to, from The Council for New England 156 

Royal charter to 160 

English governor of 168 

Government of, transferred to New England 167 

Charter of, annulled 243 

Charter of, restored 245 

New charter given 245 

Massachusetts Bay Colony, The. 

The first settlement 157 

The first exodus to 160 

The second exodus to 168 

The third exodus to 211 

Sickness in 169, 173 

Good mechanics in 172 

Clergymen in 266 

Congregationalism of 161, 162 

Boston the principal town of 169 

Foreign commerce with 191 

Trading trips within the Plymouth territory made by . . . 173 
Refusal of, to occupy the Connecticut valley with the Plym- 
outh colonists 183 

Interference of, in Kennebec matters 187 

Winslow the representative of, in England 189, 225 

Request of the Plymouth colonists for the aid of, in driving 

the French from Castine 191, 193 

Large emigration of, to Connecticut 193, 194, 198 

Expedition of, against the Narragansetts 203 

Expedition of against the Pequots 201, 203, 207, 208 

Treaty of, with the Narragansetts 204 

Boundary dispute of, with the Plymouth colony 213 

Phenomenal growth of 160, 178, 222 



^ 



320 INDEX 

PAGE 

Massachusetts Bay Colony, The, Cimtinued. 

Confederacy of, with the other colonists 2*20 

Population of 2*^1 

Attempts of, to dictate to the other colonies 222, 258 

Troops of, in King Philip's War 235 

Independence of 240 

Commission sent to 242 

Letters from, to the other colonies to resist taxation .... 249 

Massachusetts Bay Indians, The. 

First visit of the Plymouth colonists to 79 

Small-pox among 185 

Massasoit. 

Territory of 73 

First visit of, to the colony 74 

Treaty with 75 

Winslow's visit to 76 

Thanksgiving feast with, at Plymoutli 82 

Friendship of, lost 88, 90 

Illness of 95 

Refusal of, to join the Cape Cod Indian conspiracy .... 98 

War upon, by tlie Narragansetts 179 

Death of 229 

IMather, Cotton 227 

Maverick, Samuel 135 

May Flower, The. 

Sailing of. from lAnidon to Southampton 50, 51 

Overcrowtling of, at Plymouth, England 55 

Arrival of, in Proviiuetown Harbor 55 

Compact matle in the cabin of 34, 50 

Sailing of, from Provincetown Harbor to Plymouth Harbor . 66 

Captain of, threatens to sail for England 70 

Typhus fever among the Pilgrims on 69 

■^ryiihus fever among officers and crew of 70 

Departure of 75 

Arrival of, at Salem with emigrants from Leyden 163 

Medfield, Massac hitsetts 238 

Medford, Massachusetts 80, 169 

Meeting-house, The. 

Why called meeting-houses and not churches 270 

The rendezvous house used as the 69,116 

The fort used as the 115,118,125,292 

Description of the first ones 273, 274 

Town appropriation for care of the 280 

I'sed for town meetings 273 

The new meeting-houses 274, 275, 280 

Pulpits in 273. 274 



INDEX 321 



PAGE 

Meeting-house, The, Continued. 

Pews in 273, 275 

Deacon seats in 275, 282 

Fore-seats in 275 

Sentinel's seat in 275 

Use of foot-stoves in 282 

Pipe-smoking in 275 

Seats in, assigned to negroes and Indians 281 

Merry Mount, see Wollaston. 

Metacom, see King Philip. 

middleborough, massachusetts 2.s8 

MiLFORD, Connecticut 219 

Militia, The. 

The organization of 81 

Settlers drilled in military mancEUvres 86, 118 

The militia sent to Merry Mount 154 

The militia of Connecticut 205 

The militia of the Confederacy 235 

The Massachusetts militia in the war of England against 

France in Canada 247 

The minute-men 283 

Millenary Petition, The 27 

Milk 117 

Mills. 

For dressing leather 282 

For fulling wool 279 

For sawing lumber 266 

Ministers. 

The Plymouth colonists without any 50, 163 

A clergyman of the Church of England sent over 112 

Lyford aljowed to preach 122 

The minister brought over by Allerton sent back 155 

Ralph Smith the first minister 163 

Roger Williams made assistant to Ralph Smith 175 

Resignation of Roger Williams 175 

John Norton made assistant to Ralph Smith 195 

Resignation of John Norton 195 

Resignation of Ralph Sinith 200 

John Raynor called 200 

Charles Chauncy made assistant to John Raynor 214 

Resignation of Charles Chauncy 215 

John Cotton the successor of John Raynor 276 

The appointment of ministers the vital question between the 

Separatists and the Church of England 269 

Puritan ministers in England 159, 161 

The ministers in New England 266 



322 INDEX 

PAGF 

Ministers, Continued. 

The character of the colonists largely determined by the . , . '•2GG 

Appointment of the "ZIO 

Duties of the !270 

Houses of the 266 

Land of the 276 

Salaries of the 276 

MiNTER, Desire 71 

Minute Men 28.'? 

Mohawk Indians, The 209 

MoHEGAN Indians, The 205, 207 

MoLLiE Brown's Cove, England 32, 34 

Monhegan Indians 73 

Monhegan Island, INIaine. 

Early trading station at 46 

Home of Samoset 73 

Departure of the Weymouth settlers for 101 

Trip of Bradford and Winslow to 140 

Monks Hill, Plymoltth 283 

MonUxMet KivER, Buzz.vrds Bay 143 

Moore, Richard 71 

Morton, THO^L\s 135, 136, 154, 155, 163 

Mosquitoes 180 

Mount Hope, Narragansett Bay 234, 280 

IMuLLENs, Priscilla 71 

Muskets 237,238,283 

Mussels 67 

Mystic River, Connecticut 205 

Mystic River, ISIassachusetts 80 

Namsketet Creek 142 

Narragansett Bay. 

The home of the Wampanoags 73, 260 

Indian path to 115 

Wampum shells on 148 

Plantation of Roger Williams on 176 

Naril\gansett Indians, The. 

Territory of 85, 201 

Declaration of war against the PljTnouth colony by . . . 85, 86 

Trade of the Dutch settlers with 144 

Trade of the Plymouth settlers with 144 

Conspiracy of, with the Pequots 179, 222 

Small-pox among 185 

Murder of Boston settlers by 201 

Treaty of, with Massachusetts Bay colony 204 

War with 235 



INDEX . 323 

PAGE 

Nation-making 45, 217, 222, 263, 268, 287, 295 

National Church, The, see Church of England. 
Naumkeag, see Salem. 
Nauset Indians, The. 

Territory of 73 

Cornfields of 58 

Exploring party attacked by 62 

The colonists in fear of 68 

Payment for the corn taken 79 

Friendly relations with 79, 89 

Navigation Laws, The 229, 242, 243 

Negroes 267,281 

Nemasket Path 115 

Neponset Indians, The. 

Treatment of, by the Weymouth settlers 97 

Conspiracy of 98 

Defeat of 100, 101 

Neponset River, Massachusetts 80 

New A]visterd.\m, see The Dutch. 

Newcomen, John 166 

New England. 

Bleak coast of 67 

Early explorations of 45, 46 

Grant of, to the North Virginia Company 46 

Emigration of the Pilgrims to 55, 56 

Grant of, to the Council for New England by the North 

^ Virginia Company 47 

Grant of a portion of, to the Massachusetts Bay colony ... 156 

Grant of a portion of, to the Plymouth colony 83, 165 

Early hardships in 169, 260 

Kennebec grant to the Plymouth colony 155 

Emigration of Puritans to 157, 160, 168 

English commission sent to 242 

Considered in England a desirable place for emigration ... 211 

Confederacy of 220 

Loss of lives in, during King Philip's War 240 

Growth of, impeded by the war in Canada 247 

Free schools in 277 

Population of 239 

Ministers in 266 

Theocracy of 273 

The people of 267 

New England Company, The, see Council for New Eng- 
land. 
New England Confederacy, The. 

The first attempt to form a confederacy 218 



324 INDEX 

PAGE 

Nkw England Confeder.\cy, The, Continued. 

The formation of --0 

Articles of '^'^ 

Members of 'i'iO 

Populatit)!! t>f the colonies at the time of '■Z'il 

Troops of, (lurinij: Kin^j; l*hilij)'s War 235 

Nhw Enulani) 'I'ypks. 

'I'he tlevelo[)inent of, partly from relifj:ious convictions, 15(5, 159, 288 
The development of, partly because of the university men in 

the colonies 100 

The development of, partly because of the ministers in the 

colonies -OU 

Coldness and reserve characteristics 20() 

Inciuisitiveness a characteristic 2G7 

Sturdiness a characteristic 207 

Nkw Havkn. 

The settlement at 210 

The republic of . 210 

A member of the confederacy 220 

New TiosTAMENr. 'i'liH. 

Robert Browne's study of 17 

The Pilfj:rim.s' interpretation of 2 

The Pilj,Mims' church based on the doctrines tau<j:ht in ... . 200 

New Ykah's D.vy .^ 110 

Nii'MiuMv Indi.vns, T[1E. 

Territory of 234 

Conspiracy with the Wampanoags 230, 234 

Defeat of 230 

Nodole's Island, Boston Harbor 135 

N()N-(n)NlX)HMISl'S. 

Meaning of 

Persecution of 11,13,131 

NouFOLK County, M.vss.vchusetts 157 

NouTiiiMKi.n. Massachusetts 234 

NoiiTii Vmuunia Company, The 40. 47 

Norton, Rev. John 105 

NouwuMi, England 14, 15, 20 

NoiTLNGH.UISHHlE, EnGL.VND 201 

NovATLVNa, The 7 

Oldham, John. 

Character of 12.*i 

Conspiracy of 123, 124 

Arrest of 124 

Trial of 125, 127 

Ordered from the colony 128 



INDEX 325 



PAGE 

Oldham, John, Continued. 

His residence at Hull 1130 

Disgrace of, upon returning to the colony l.'J2 

His residence at Jioston iiOl 

Murder of, by Indians 'aiOl 

OiU'iiAiiDS 134, 173 

OuLioANS JUy, Cape Cod 14i^ 

OiTEK Skins 83, 11)1 

(JVSTEUS i281 

Oxen 215 

Paling 152 

P.\MET Indians, The !)5 

Pamet liivEit, Cape Cod 5S, (iO, (il 

Paragon, THE Ship 109,110,111 

Parish, The 270 

PARTicuLAiis, The 107, 108, 112, 122, 123 

Patp:nt of Land, see Grant of Land. 

Patrick, Captain 207, 208 

Patucket River 214 

Patuxet, Cape Cod . 73 

Patuxet Indians, The. 

Territory of 75, 2G0 

Land cleared by 05, 07 

Extermination of 73, 75, 291 

The Only survivor of 74 

Pawtucket, Rhode Island 238 

Peas. 

The planting of the peas brought from England 76 

Failure of crop 82 

Peas bought from ship Plantation 100 

Used in barter 149 

The minister's salary partly paid in 276 

Peirce, Captain William. 

Captain of the Charity 124 

Captain of the Jacob 132, 134 

Captain of the May Flower 1()3 

Cajjbiin of the Lyon 105, 170 

T*EMAQtjiD, Maine 192 

Penohscot River, Maine 104 

Penky, John 17, 18, 19, 139 

I'equod Harkor, Connecticut 208, 209 

Pequot Indians, The. 

Territory of 201 

Plymouth colonists suspicious of 179 

Conspiracy of, with the Narragansetts 222 



326 INDEX 

PAGE 

Pequot Indians, The, Continued. 

Murder of Massachusetts Bay settlers by 201 

Destruction of corn of, by the Massachusetts Bay troops . 203 

Settlers in Connecticut attacked by 204 

Settlers of Connecticut make war on 207 

Overthrow of 208, 209 

The PljTnouth colonists not participants in the Pequot w^ar . 210 

Pe^vs 273,275,280 

PE^^TERS 266 

Phips, Sir Willlvai 245 

Pierce, C.vptain 238 

Pierce, John. 

The Pilgrim grant of land taken out in name of, 83, 144, 165, 243 

Transfer of grant to the colonists 293 

Pillories 269,274 

Pinesse 78,98,101 

Pinnace 143 

Pipe of Peace 148 

PiscATAQUA River, Maine. 

First plantation on 103 

Trading post on 146 

Settlers on 103, 140, 146, 242 

Plantation, the Ship 106 

Plymouth, Engl.\nd 46, 54 

Plymouth, M.vssachusetts. 

Captain Dermer's exploration of the harbor of 46 

The location of the colony at 67 

Called by Indians "Patuxet" 73 

The colony called" New Plimouth" 77,181,213 

The town called "Plimouth" 181,251 

The first houses erected 69, 75 

The settlement in 1623 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118 

The settlement in 1636 196 

The daily life at, during the pioneer days . . 117,118,260,263 

Characteristics of the people of . 267,271,288 

Plan to settle on the Connecticut River 194 

Plan to settle where soil was better 212 

Thatch roofs of houses changed to paling 152 

The gro\\-th of the colony 173,177,181,196,212 

The seat of the colonial government 181, 277 

Neighboring towns 213 

Inhabitants of, settle in other places 214 

Deterioration of the town 216 

Public schools in 277 

New INIeeting House in 280 

Fortification for defence of 231 



INDEX 327 

PAGE 

Plymouth, Massachusetts, Continued. 

Houses in, burned during King Philip's War 238 

Petition for royal charter 243 

Vote of, in reference to English oppression, 250-256 or 250, 251, 252, 

253, 254, 255, 250 

Present titles to the land in 260 

Plymouth Church, The, see Congregationalism. 
PlYxMouth Company, The, see North Virginia Company. 
Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts. 

Early knowledge of 46 

Named by Captain John Smith 64 

The Pilgrims' discovery of 64 

The May Flower in 66 

Departure of the May Flower from 75 

Vessels in Plymouth Harbor an ordinary occurrence . . . 132 
Daily trips between Boston and Plymouth Harbors .... 173 

Plymouth Rock, The Landing on 34, 65 

Pocasset Indl^ns 78, 79 

Popery 2, 4, 6, 12, 68 

Popham, George . 45 

Poultry 117,149,264 

Powder-house 282,283 

Prayer Book, The, see Book of Common Prayer. 
Prence, Thomas. 

One of the "Undertakers" 144 

Made governor of the colony 186, 228 

One of the Executive Council 186 

Presbyters 270 

Pring, Captain Martin 45, 57, 64 

Proprietors, see Townsmen. 
Protestants. 

Those first called Protestants 4 

Early Protestants in Holland 20, 28, 36 

Early Protestants in England 1, 4, 6 

Different kinds of 9 

Early persecutions of 7, 11, 12 

Early persecutions by 13 

See also Church of England and Congregationalism. 

Protestant Reformation, The 2, 9, 44 

Provahs 96 

Providence Plantation 176 

Provincetown Harbor, Massachusetts 55, 66, 71 

Puritans, The. 

Meaning of the name 7 

The doctrines of 8, 9 

The Puritans in England 7,8,9,12,15 



328 INDEX 

PAGE 

Puritans, The, Conthiued. 

Opposition to, in the Church of England 11, 12, 13 

The Puritans who became Separatists, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 

17, 18, 19 
Majority of the London stockholders Puritans .... 113, 133 

Later persecutions of 156, 159 

Grants of land in IVIassachusetts to 156, 160 

The exodus of, from England 157,160,168,211 

The Puritan settlement at Gloucester 130, 134 

The Puritan settlement at Salem . ... . . . 130, 134, 157 

The Puritan settlement at Boston and vicinity 169 

The Puritan settlements in Connecticut 194,198,219 

The doctrines of the IVIassachusetts Bay Puritans more narrow 

than those of the Plymouth colonists 168, 294 

The doctrines of the Plymouth colonists adopted by the Puri- 
tans of Massachusetts Bay 158, 162 

See also Massachusetts Bay colony. 

Quebec, Canada 46, 47 

Queen Elizabeth 12, 22, 24, 27 

Queen Mary 11, 13 

QuiNCY, M.\ssachusetts 80, 135 

Raleigh, Sir Walter 16, 43 

Randolph, Edward 242, 243 

Rassieres, Isa.\c de. 

In charge of the Dutch Settlement at ^Manhattan 144 

Letters to Bradford from 144, 146 

Letters from Bradford to 144, 146 

Visit of, to the Plymouth colony 147 

Rattlesnakes 180 

Religious Liberty. 

In Holland 28, 36, 37 

In England 2, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 1<> 

English interference with 11, 12, 13, 28, 29, 32 

The Pilgrim Fathers' belief in 1,2, 287, 289 

Religious liberty in the Plymouth colony . . . 128, 131, 152, 162 
Opposition to, among the new arrivals .... 122, 123, 125, 128 
Fears of loss of, in the colony by being outnumbered .... 152 

Religious liberty in the Bay colony 161, 162, 266 

One of the reasons for forming the confederacy 220 

Civil war in England on account of belief in 34 

Commission appointed to enforce religious liberty in the 

colonies according to the laws of England 229 

Religious liberty guaranteed by England 245 

See also Congregationalism. 



INDEX 329 



PAGE 

Rendezvous House, the . , . . . 69, 72, 77, 1 1(5 

Republic of New Haven, The 219 

Republican Form of Government Inevitable 162 

Revolutionary War, The. 

The spirit which brought it about 45, 168, 197, 247, 256 

The beginning of 257, 283 

Raynor, Rev. John I. . . . . 200, 214 

Rhode Island 201 

Right of Suffrage 72 

Roads 173,260,280 

RoBBiNS, Rev. Ch.andler 277 

Robinson, John. 

Assistant minister of the Scrooby church 26 

His leadership in Amsterdam 37 

The head of the church in Leyden 40 

His negotiations with the Dutch for a grant of land at Man- 
hattan 48 

To remain in Leyden church until the colony was established, 50 

His farewell blessing to the emigrants 51 

His criticism of Standish 102 

Opposition to his joining the colony 112, 133 

The liberality of his religion 131, 139 

His death . . 139 

The world his debtor 41 

Robinson, Mercy 102 

Rogers, Rev. — 155 

Rogers, Joseph 71 

Roman Catholics 3,4,5,6,7,11,12,13 

Rotterd.\m, Holland 50 

Roxbury, Massachusetts 169 

Royal Charter. 

Given to the Massachusetts Bay colony 160 

None given to the Plymouth colony 47, 286 

Negotiations for, by the Plymouth colony 166 

Later attempts to obtain one unsuccessful ........ 243 

Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and jNlaine united under a 

single charter 245 

Rye 276 

Rye Beach, New Hampshire 103 

Sabbath, The, see Lord's Day. 

Sachems 96 

Sacraments, The 161, 270 

Sagadahoc, Maine 140 

Salem, Massachusetts. 

The first settlement at 130, 134 



330 INDEX 

PAGE 

Salem, Massachusetts, Continued. 

First known as Naumkeag 130, 134 

First Puritan emigration to 157 

Second Puritan emigration to 160 

Roger Williams at 175 

Salt. 

Storehouse for 116 

Shipment to the colony of 120 

Unsuccessful attempts to make salt 121 

s.yltpetre 284 

Samoset 73, 74, 292 

Sanders, John 98 

Sandwich, Massachusetts 95, 195, 213, 292 

Sandys, Sir Edwin 290 

Sampson, Henry 71 

Sassacus 201,209 

Sassafr.\s 67,83 

Saucers 264 

Savonarola 4 

Saw-mills 266 

Say & Sele, Lord 186, 188 

Saybrook, Connecticut 194, 205, 207, 208 

Schools. 

Pay schools early established 277 

Each town to have a school 277 

Free schools 277 

Bells for the school houses 283 

English commission appointed to inquire into the system of 

education in New England 229 

SciTUATE, Massachusetts 213, 215, 238 

ScROOBY 20,22,24,26,27 

Scurvy 56 

Scusset RrvER, Massachusetts 143, 147 

Seed-corn 58, 105, 117, 292 

Separatists, The. 

Meaning of the name 8, 9 

Those first known as 8. 9, 13 

A recognized sect 14 

Growth of 16 

Logical sequence of the doctrines of 17 

Organization of a church of in Gainsborough 19 

Organization of a church of, in Scrooby 20, 24, 26, 27 

English Separatists in Holland 14,36 

Persecution of Scrooby Separatists 28, 29, 33 

Scrooby Separatists in Holland 36, 37, 40, 41, 42 

Scrooby and other English Separatists emigrate to America, 54 



INDEX 331 

PAGE 

Separatists, The, Continued. 

Called Brownists 91, 133, 136, 139, 161 

Disapproval of, by the Puritans 15, 133 

The London stockholders opposed to a colony of . . . 121, 133 
English opposition to the Plymouth Separatists .... 112, 121 
The Plymouth colonists not all Separatists . 72, 128, 131, 145, 268 

Conspiracy in the colony against the Separatists 123 

Broadness of Robinson's doctrine of Separatism .... 131, 139 
Doctrines of, adopted by the Puritans of the Bay colony, . . 162 

Denial by Bay colonists that they were Separatists 161 

See also Congregationalism. 
Shallops. 

The one brought on the May Flower 57 

Repairs of 57, 59 

A second shallop built 85 

Wreck of one of the 92 

Fishing trips made in the 105 

Two new ones built 121 

One of the shallops lengthened for cruising 141 

Shallops used in bringing Leyden emigrants from Salem and 

Charlestown to Plymouth 163, 165 

Daily trips to Boston in 173 

Shareholders, see Stockholder. 

Sheep 204 

Sheffield, Lord 136 

Sherley, Thomas. 

One of the London " Undertakers " under the reorganization, 155 

London agent of the colonists 165 

Shipment of furs to . 189, 191, 199 

His trading post at Castine 164 

Winslow's unsuccessful attempt to get an accounting from . 191 

Dismissed as the agent of the colony 199 

A settlement made with 199 

Financial ruin of 293 

Shingles 152 

Ship's Fever 56, 69, 70 

Shipwright 121 

Shoes 118,145,265 

Slavery in the Colony 267 

Small-pox 184, 185. 193 

SMrrH, Captain John. 

Trading trip to the New England coast 46, 73 

PbTTiouth Harbor named by 64 

Exploration of Boston Harbor by 80 

Smith, Rev. John. 

Pastor of the Gainsborough church 19 



332 INDEX 

PAGE 

Smith, Rev. John, Continued. 

His church in Holland 20, 35 

His church joins the Brownists in Amsterdam 36 

His church controversy with the Brownists 37 

His church loses its identity 37 

Smith, Rev. R.\lph. 

His arrival at Salem 162 

His flight to Hull 162 

Made pastor of the Plymouth church 163 

Dismissal of 200 

His pastorate in Manchester, Massachusetts 200 

Soap Making 117 

Social Distinctions 265, 266 

SouLE, George 71 

South Virginia Company, The 46, 47, 48, 49, 56 

SouTH.iMPTON, England 50, 51, 54, 167 

Southworth, Alice 106 

Sovereignty of the People .... 45, 5Q, 72, 168, 220, 268, 298 

Sow.\.Ms, Rhode Island 73, 96, 98. 179 

SowANSETT River, Rhode Island 214 

Spaniards, The 42, 43 

Sparrow, the Ship 89 

Sparrowhawk, the Ship 142 

Special Providence of God, 60, 63, 85, 91, 108^ 109, 212, 263, 291, 

292, 293, 294, 295 

Speedwell, the Ship 50, 51, 54, 67 

Squanto. 

Survivor of the Patuxet Indians 74 

Joins the colony 76, 292 

Shows the colonists how to plant corn 76, 110 

Guide and interpreter on expedition to Boston Harbor . . 79, 86 

On second expedition to Boston Harbor 86 

His jealousy of Hobomok 88 

Death of 92 

St. Bartholomew's Day 12 

St. Peter's Cathedral, Leyden 37 

Stamford, Connecticut 219 

St.\mp Act, The 247, 249 

Standish, Myles. 

Joins the Scrooby Separatists in Leyden 41 

One of the ]\Iay Flower emigrants 71 

In command of the first exploring expedition 57, 58 

On the third exploring expedition 61 

Made military commander of the colony 72 

Organizes the colonists into military companies 86, 118 

Sent to meet Massasoit 74 



H 



INDEX 333 

PAGE 

Standish, ]Myles, Continued. 

Sent to rescue Squanto 79 

Billington's refusal to obey order of 166 

In command of the first expedition to Boston Harbor ... 79 

Charles River named by 81 

In command of second expedition to Boston Harbor ... 86 

111 with fever 92 

Indian conspiracy against 95, 98 

In command of Weymouth expedition 99, 102 

Sent to Maine for supplies 105 

His home in Plymouth 116 

Oldham's insult to 124 

Sent to Cape Ann to look after colony's property 134 

Sent to England to get money for the colony 138 

One of the " Undertakers " 144 

In command of the militia sent to Merry Mount 154 

His home in Duxbury 178, 214 

His suspicions of an Indian conspiracy 179 

Sent to Boston to demand release of Alden 187 

In command of expedition to Castine 192 

Death of 102, 226 

His character 227 

One of the four great leaders of the colony 229 

A man of destiny 229 

The world his debtor 41 

Star Chamber Courts 167 

Statehood 81,205,286 

Stockade, The 86, 113 

Stockholders, The London. 

Carver and Cushman sent from Holland to England to in- 
terest London merchants in the enterprise 48 

Stock company formed 49 

Withdrawal of many of 50 

Majority of, Puritans 113, 133 

Laborers sent over by 55, 56 

Cushman sent over by, to examine the affairs of the colony . 83 

Part of each crop kept in storehouse for 105 

Winslows' voyage to England to consult with 109 

Opposition to Robinson joining the colony by .... 113, 133 

Intrigue of, to get colony under Puritan control 121 

Refusal of, to make further advances 133 

Violation of contract by 133 

The enterprise given up by 133 

Fishing stage at Cape Ann seized by some of 134 

Negotiation to purchase the interest of 141 

Contract with, to sell their interests 144, 146 



334 INDEX 

PAGE 

Stockholders under the Reorganization. 

Terms by which the colonists were to become stockholders . 145 

Four of the London stockholders join 155 

The nmnber of stockholders in the colony 145, 153 

No sectarianism shown 145 

Allotments of land and houses to 153 

Stocks used for Petty Offences 269, 274 

Stone, C.\ptain John 201, 203 

Stool Ball 84 

Storehouse, The. 

The first building erected after the landing 69 

Location of 76 

Food distributed from 90 

Set on fire by an incendiary Ill 

Stoughton, C-\ptain Willl\m 208, 209, 213 

Stoughton, Connecticut 207 

Stony Brook 281 

Strawberries 67, 264 

Stuart Kings overthrown 246 

Suffolk County 157 

Sugar 120 

Sunday, see Lord's Day. 

Sw^AN, the Ship 90,91,92,101,103,110,111 

SwANZEY, ]NL\ssachusetts 231,234 

Swine 117,143,146 



T.\LBOT, Moses 187 

Tar->lakd^g 117,271,278 

Taunton, IVL^ssachusetts 213, 234 

Taverns 196,266 

T.\x.\tion. 

No taxation without consent 170, 197 

Taxes often paid in corn 215 

The Bay colonists taxed to build a fort 170 

The stamp tax • • • • ^4^' ^^^ 

Complaint of the Plymouth colony against English taxation . 247 
Complaint of the Bay colony against English taxation . . . 249 

Taxation for schools in thePljTnouth colony 277 

Tea Unknown 70,264 

Th.\mes Rr^ER, Connecticut 203, 207, 209 

Thames River, England 211 

Thanksgiving Day. 

The first in New England 82 

The second in New England 109 

A special festival day at times of prosperity 180, 239 



INDEX 335 

PAGE 

Thatched Roofs. 

The first houses built with 69, 75 

The thatch changed to pahng or boards 152 

Thompson, David 140 

Thompson's Island , 80 

Thornton Abbey, England 30,32 

Tilly, Elizabeth 71 

Tithing-man 272 

Tobacco 137,145 

Tory Party, The 243 

Town Brook, The. 

Building lots laid out along 68 

Ford across 74 

Bastion near 115 

Dam across 117 

Lots allotted on further side of 120 

Grist-mill on 279 

Mill for dressing leather on 282 

Town Meeting. 

The first held 72 

Held annually for the election of ofiicers 268 

Voting at, not restricted to church members 268 

Special town meeting frequently held 125 

The meeting-houses used for 273 

Town Notices 273 

Town Pound 279 

Townsmen, see Freemen. 
Trading Goods. 

Small stock of, brought over in the May Flower 53 

Storehouse built for 69 

Delay in getting the stock ashore 72 

Stock of, purchased from the captain of the Discovery . . 91 

The eft'ect on the Indians of the colonists having .... 96, 261 

Weston's trading stock lost 103 

Loan of beaver skins to Weston with which to purchase new 

stock 103 

Winslow sent to England for 109 

Stock sent over by the London shareholders on private 

account 134 

Stock purchased at Monhegan 140 

Stock purchased by Allerton for the colony , . . 144, 163, 166 
Stock purchased by Allerton on his private account mixed 

with that of the colonists 163 

The colonists stock turned over to the " Undertakers " . . 145 

Stock sent to Castine 164, 186 

Stock at Castine taken by the French 174, 191 



336 INDEX 

PAGE 

Trading Posts. 

Plymouth post at Cape Ann 121, 134- 

Plymouth post on Monumet River 143 

Plymouth post near So warns 179 

Plymouth post on Kennebec River 155 

Plymouth post on Penobscot River 164 

Plymouth post on Connecticut River 184 

Training Ground 281 

Transubstantiation 3 

Treaties with the Indians 75, 204 

Trenchers 264 

Trent, the River, England 32 

Trevor, \Yilli.\m 71 

Trial by Jury - 113,198 

Turkeys 81,104,117,264 

Turners F.\lls 239 

Tyndale, William 10 

Types of the People, see New England Types. 

Typhus Fever 56, 69, 70 

Underhill, Captain John 205, 207, 208 

Undertakers, The. 

Appointment of 145 

Agreement of the colonists with 145 

Four London stockholders appointed 155 

The London " Undertakers ' ' establish a trading post at Castine, 164 
Passage money of the Levden emigrants to be paid bv . . . . 145 

Trade of ...../ "..... 199 

Settlement made with the London " Undertakers " .... 199 
Kennebec trading post given up by 212 

Unitarianism . 139 

United Colonies of New England The 221, 230 

Venison 81, 104, 117, 264 

Virginian Colony, The. 

The settlement of 44 

The nearest English settlement to the PljTDOuth colony . . 75 

The massacre of 89 

Departure of some of the Weymouth settlers for Ill 

Vessel from, wrecked on Cape Cod 142 

The Lyon wrecked on w^ay to 180 

Virginia Company, The 44 

W.\LFORD, Thomas 135 

Walloons, The 15 

Wampanoags, The. 



INDEX 337 

PAGE 

Wampanoags, The, Continued. 

Territory of 73, 260 

Treaty with 75 

Land reserved for 214 

Conspiracy of 230 

Flightof .,.....; 234 

See also King Philip. 

Wampum Beads 147,148,149,150,151,164 

Wampum used as Money 149, 150 

Wamsutta, see Alexander. 

War of the Roses, The 5 

Warren, Rhode Island 73 

Warren, Richard 71 

Warwick, Earl of 165 

Warwick Grant, The 165, 213, 243 

Watch-house, The 216,231 

Watch-tower, The 76 

Water-gates 117 

Water Supply 281, 282 

Watertown, Massachusetts 169, 170, 198 

Watson's Hill 74 

Weaving of Wool 279 

West, Francis 106, 110 

West Indies Islands 226 

West India Company 144 

WrsTON, Thomas. 

At head of syndicate to raise money for the Pilgrims' expedition, 49 
Ciishnian's agreement with, to change the terms of the 

contract 50, 53 

Action of, at the departure of the Pilgrims 53 

Letter from 89 

Arrival of two vessels of , 90 

Brother-in-law of , in charge of Weymouth settlement .... 91 

Arrival of 103 

Beaver skins loaned to 103 

Arrest of 110 

Financial ruin of 293 

Wethersfield, Connecticut 198, 204, 205 

Weymouth, Massachusetts. 

The settlement at 91 

Recklessness of the settlers at 91, 97 

Destitution of the settlers at 97 

Standish's trip to 99 

His attack on the Indians at 100 

Abandonment of the settlement at 101 

Weston at 103, 110 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Weymouth, Massachusetts, Continued. 

New settlement at 135 

Settlement at, attacked by King Philip 238 

WH.4JLE Oil 276 

Wheat 76, 82, 149, 276 

Wheeled Vehicles 267, 277 

Whipping-posts 269, 274 

White, Roger 139 

White, Susanna 71 

WicKFORD, Connecticut 238 

Wn.D Fowl 67 

Wildcats 281 

WiLLET, Joseph 164, 191 

WiLLL\jvi, Prince of Orange 244, 246 

Williams, Rev. Roger. 

Settled in Boston 174 

Settled in Salem 175, 176 

Settled in Plymouth 175 

His claim that kings could not give charters of land ... 175 

His Providence Plantation 176 

His intercession with the Narragansetts 204 

Windsor, Connecticut 184, 185, 194, 198, 204, 205 

WiNSLow, Edward. 

Joins the Separatists at Leyden 41 

One of the May Flower emigrants 71 

On the third exploring expedition 61 

A hostage during Massasoit's first visit to the colony ... 74 

His visit to Massasoit . 76 

His trip to Maine for provisions 89 

His visit to Massasoit during his illness 95, 98 

His voyage to England to arrange about the future of the 

colony 109 

Grant of land at Cape Ann to 120, 136 

His opposition to Lytord joining the colony 122 

His second trip to England 123 

His trip to the Island of Monhegan 140 

One of the "Undertakers" 144 

His third trip to England 166 

Made governor of the colony 181,228 

His negotiations with the Bay colony for a joint occupancy of 

Connecticut .• • • ^^^ 

On a trading trip up the Connecticut River 188 

His fourth trip to England 189 

His fifth trip to England 191, 195 

One of the commissioners to settle the boundary line be- 
tween the Bay colony and Plymouth 213 



INDEX 339 



PAGE 

WmsLOW, Edward, Continued. 

His sixth trip to England as agent of the Bay colony . . . 225 
Appointed by Cromwell one of the commissioners to settle 

the disputes between England and Holland . 226 

Appointed by Cromwell one of the commissioners to take the 

Spanish West Indies 226 

His death at sea on voyage to Jamaica 226 

One of the four great leaders of the colony 229 

A man of destiny 229 

The v^^orld his debtor 41 

Extracts from his journal ... 51, 56, 57, 58, 76, 82, 96, 108, 264 

WiNSLow, Gilbert 71 

WiNSLow, John 83, 247 

WiNTHROP, John. 

Governor of the Bay colony 168 

His arrival at Salem 168 

Settled in Charlestown and later in Boston 169 

His correspondence with Bradford 174 

Bradford's visit to 176 

His visit to Plymouth 179 

His belief in destiny 290 

Whitgift, John 12 

WiTUWAMAT 100,101 

WoLLASTON, Captain 135, 136 

WoLLASTON, Massachusetts. 

Settlement at 135 

Name changed to Merry Mount 136 

Scandalous proceedings at 136, 154 

Standish's trip to 154 

Morton's return to 163 

Wolves. 

A menace to the cattle 121, 215, 225 

Bounties for killing 215, 273 

Wyclif, John 3, 4 

Yarmouth, Massachusetts 213, 214 

York, Archbishop of 20, 22, 187, 211, 219 

Yorkshire, England 291 

YoRKTOWN, Virginia 259 

Zeeland, Holland, The Coast of 30 



tX>. 



£ 907 



